The number of Chinese tourists who traveled overseas during the recent Spring Festival holidays is expected to represent a significant increase on previous years, with spending also projected to have increased, making considerable contributions to economic recoveries overseas, Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy (CTA), said Friday.

"According to our estimate, China's outbound travel increased significantly year on year during the Spring Festival holidays. The major overseas destinations for Chinese tourists are Europe, North America and Southeast Asian countries," Dai told.

According to the results of a joint research project by the CTA, the most popular destination for Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival holidays is Thailand. Bookings for trips to Thailand with ctrip.com were twice what they were during previous Spring Festival holidays.  

Spending by Chinese tourists has also dramatically increased. With average spending at $1,000 per capita for each trip overseas in 2012, Chinese tourists made the largest contribution to the global tourism economy last year and the spending will continue to rise during the Spring Festival holidays, Dai said.

Chinese tourists spent $85 billion during overseas trips in 2012, up from $72.6 billion in 2011 and twice as much as the annual revenue of oil company Exxon Mobil, the largest company in the world by revenue in 2011, the Washington Post reported in January.

"Having long queues of Chinese tourists on the Avenue des Champs-Elysées (a shopping boulevard popular with tourists) to buy luxury bags, watches and cosmetics during the holidays is no longer a surprise," Zhao said. 

Many foreign countries made special arrangements to attract Chinese tourists and foreign retailers arranged sales to cash in on the boom in Chinese tourists during the holidays.

Chinese tourists spent $7.2 billion on luxury goods in Europe during the 2012 Spring Festival holidays, accounting for 62 percent of total sales of luxury goods during the period and the figure was expected rise significantly during this year's Spring Festival season, the Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.