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TRAVEL BLOG

9.27.05

World Tourism Organization: 100 Million Chinese Travelers by 2020

How significant is the number? Consider this: Chinese citizens were only freed by their government to travel for leisure in 1997, and last year only 29 million mainland Chinese citizens traveled abroad. Tom Miller of the China Economic Quarterly writes that the upcoming Chinese tourism boom is a mixed blessing for Europe’s tourism economy.

"For upwardly mobile Chinese, a trip to Europe now ranks alongside a plush apartment and a foreign car as a sign of sophisticated modernity,” Miller writes. However, Chinese tourists “stay for two or three nights at a time, rarely eat in local restaurants, and do little but get shooed around the major tourist sites. As Hong Kongers have known for years, Mainland Chinese tourism is scarcely a boon for the local service economy.”

Shanghai Daily cites another report that Chinese tourists will number 115 million by 2020, with students and career-driven women comprising most of the travelers. China’s rising economy will play a large role in the boom. The yuan is expected to rise 17 percent against the Euro this year alone.

Posted by Michael Yessis • 9.27.05
Categories: Weblog • China • Global Village • Hong Kong • In the News