57.4 million Chinese traveled out of China to see the world and to spend money on outbound tourism in 2010. For 2015, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA ) forecasts that 100 million travelers spending US$100 billion will turn China into the worldwide No.1 international tourism source market.
 

In 2010, the number of domestic tourists reached 2.1 billion, an increase of 10.6% against the previous year; domestic tourism income reached RMB 1.26 trillion, marking an increase of 23.5%; the number of inbound tourist reached 134 million, marking an increase of 5.8%; the number of inbound overnight tourists reached 55.66 million, marking an increase of 9.4%; tourism foreign exchange earnings reached USD 45.8 billion, marking an increase of 15.5%; the number of outbound tourists reached 57.39 million, marking an increase of 20.4%; total income of the national tourism industry reached RMB 1.57 trillion, marking an increase of 21.7%.

By 2015, the domestic tourism population should reach 3.3 billion, the number of inbound overnight tourists should reach 66.3 million, the number of outbound overnight tourists should reach 83.75 million, and the total income from tourism should reach RMB 2.3 trillion. Annual increase of the number of direct employment in the tourism industry should reach 700 thousand while the total number of direct employment directly in the tourism industry should reach15.25 million by 2015.

Top International Destinations for Chinese Tourists

Australia is the top destination in the world for Chinese travelers with two surveys putting it as the favored destination for tourists and immigrants from China. Singapore took second place and Canada third. In fourth place was Japan, then the United States, South Korea and New Zealand.
 

Actual tourist destination counts
2.5 million chinese tourists visited Western Europe in 2010, up from 2 million in 2009. Mainland Chinese spent $23.4 billion last year on high-end handbags and suitcases, shoes, watches, jewelry, clothes, cosmetics and perfumes, according to Bain & Co., and more than half of that was purchased overseas.
 

60 million international visitors came to the United States in 2010 and spent $134 billion dollars.
 

On average, Chinese tourists spent 107 percent more year-on-year on tax-refunded shopping abroad in 2010, reaching a 130 per cent spike in September compared with the same month in 2009, Manelik Sfez, vice-president of global marketing at Switzerland-based Global Blue, a tax-refund and shopping services provider, explained this week to Asia One News.
 

According to Global Blue), Chinese travelers last year on average spent 744 euros on tax-free shopping transactions, which doubled the Russians 368 euros.
 

American tourists meanwhile spent 554 euros on each trip to Europe and Japanese tourists forked out 521 euros.
 

According to Global Blue, Chinese tourists spend the most on fashion, jewelry and watches – their preference is to hit the big department stores, where they have more options.