Number of Chinese travelling overseas to reach 200m by 2030

The annual number of Chinese residents travelling overseas will reach 200 million by 2030, a global travelling solution supplier predicted.

The barriers for Chinese residents to travel overseas, such as visa requirements and transportation expenses, will come down in the future, and advanced technologies will help travellers select their tour routes more easily, Amadeus IT Group SA, a main global distribution system supplier headquartered in Spain, said in a report on China’s tourism industry released on Wednesday.

Statistics from the National Tourism Administration show that Chinese residents made 83.18 million trips overseas in 2012.

Visa requirements are one of the main barriers for Chinese travellers. Some countries have recognised the importance of Chinese travellers and they are easing the visa application process.

Meanwhile, some foreign budget airlines, such as Air Asia, Jetstar and Scoot Pte Ltd, are actively exploring China’s market to make travelling affordable for Chinese residents.

In 2012, 32 per cent of business travellers and 50 per cent of leisure travellers in China took budget airlines to travel overseas, according to the report.

“The Chinese market has maintained a stable and fast growth, and it is very important for the Asia and Pacific tourism market,” said Mark Dougan, executive chairman of Frost & Sullivan, a company from the US providing market research and entrusted by Amadeus with the report.

Chinese travellers have already been the main source of growth in Asia’s tourism market, said Wang Zhifa, deputy head of the national tourism authority.

Chinese female business travellers going abroad are expected to increase by 232 per cent by 2030, the report said.