China will pass the 100 million outbound travels mark in the forthcoming twelve months. According to a new forecast by COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, 106 million border crossings from Mainland China are to be expected in the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014. The Chinese outbound travellers will spend a total amount of 129 billion US$.

If the forecast becomes reality, the 100 million outbound travels mark will be reached by China much earlier than 2020, which for a long time was the year forecasted by UNWTO. The article in C.O.M.I. is even seeing this forecast as “conservative”, with the growth rates for both border crossings and expenditure more likely to be exceeded than to be missed.

It has to be kept in mind that the forecast numbers include overnight and day trips to the Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macau, which could be argued as being strictly speaking not international travelling. This will however not stop destinations around the world to increase their efforts to get their slice of the 129 billion US$ cake.

For 2012 the official number of border crossings from China was given at 83 million and the expenditure as 102 billion US$. The forecasts for 106 million travels and 129 billion US$ expenditure for the period July 2013 to June 2014 were published in the first issue of the new quarterly magazine C.O.M.I. China Outbound Market Intelligence.