Everyone Wants a Chinese Tourist in 2013: How 30+ Countries Plan to Lure Them In
Photo Caption: The official tourism site of Canada is available in Mandarin.
Skift Take
A booming economy and expanding middle class with a newly disposable income has made China the number one most sought after outbound tourism market in the world.
A record 1 billion tourists crossed international borders in 2012, and Chinese travelers are becoming a bigger and bigger part of it. Outbound tourists rose from 16.6 million in 2002 to 70.3 million in 2011, and are expected to rise to 82 million this year, up 17 percent. Those numbers are expected to rise to a whopping 200 million by 2020, and the world needs to get ready to absorb that many extra tourists. And especially tourists spending money: UNWTO figures show that year on year, Chinese tourists spent 30 percent more when travelling abroad in 2012 than previous year.
From hotels, airports, malls and retailers hiring Manadarin speaking concierge services, to countries easing visa norms and doing joint marketing agreements with China, everyone wants the hordes of Chinese travelers spending money, especially the recession and debt crisis beset European and North American countries: U.S., UK and Australia are banking on Chinese visitors to shore up their sputtering
