Over 100 million mainland Chinese tourists are expected to have traveled internationally in 2014, according to the National Tourism Administration. This number beats the previous record set in 2013.
The number is somewhat misleading, as more than 60 percent of travel was to the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau as well as the self-governed island of Taiwan.
Other popular destinations were South Korea, Thailand, Japan, USA, Vietnam, and Singapore.
Nearly 90 percent of all travel was within Asia, while 3.5 percent went to Europe, 3 percent to Africa, and 2.7 percent to the Americas. The countries with the biggest increase in Chinese tourists were Japan and South Korea. Combined, the two countries saw an increase in Chinese tourism of almost 40 percent.
The new travel record stands in stark contrast to China’s international travel from just over a decade and a half ago. In 1998, there were only 8.43 million trips made beyond China’s national boundaries.
Photo: People’s Daily Online