China Outbound Tourism in 2008

In 2008, China outbound tourism market kept on developing rapidly. The tourist destinations increased continuously. Among the destinations, Taiwan became increasingly popular.

In the year, a total of 45.8444 million Chinese traveled overseas, up by 11.9% compared to that in 2007. Among them, 5.7132 million went overseas under official assignments, a decrease of 5.3% from the previous year; while those who traveled overseas for personal reasons reached 40.1312 million, up by 14.9%. The top ten countries and regions in the order of the number of Chinese visitors on the first leg of their journey were Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Russia, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.

The number of Chinese people who traveled overseas as a group organized by travel services was 10.9091 million, 1.0349 million more than in 2007, up by 10.5%. Of them, 6.0355 million went to foreign countries through the arrangements of travel services, up by 20.2%; 4.8736 million traveled to Hong Kong and Macau, up by 0.5%.  In addition, 429,300 Chinese people traveled to the frontier area under the arrangements of travel agencies, 6.3% down from the previous year.

By the end of 2008, 93 countries and regions had already become tourist destinations for Chinese travelers aside from Hong Kong and Macau. According to the tourist markets official launching order, the 93 countries and regions are as follows: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Malta, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Nepal, Germany, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Croatia, Hungary, Pakistan, Cuba, Greece, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mauritius, Tunisia, Seychelles, Kenya, Zambia, Jordan, Northern Mariana Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, the United Kingdom, Chile, Jamaica, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Laos, Mongolia, Tonga, Grenada, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Syria, Andorra, Morocco, Monaco, Bulgaria, Uganda, Oman, Namibia, Argentina, Venezuela, the United States, Taiwan, French Polynesia and Israel.

17.5570 million Chinese mainland residents visited Hong Kong on the first leg of their tours, an 8.8% increase over 2007. The number of Chinese mainland residents who traveled to Macau was 15.5217 million, a 21.6% increase over 2007.