beijingwalker
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Data: China's big spenders
- Michael Moeser
- November 19 2018, 10:57am EST
In the past few years the Chinese government has loosened restrictions on foreign travel, enabling millions of its citizenry to visit foreign lands. Along with a greater ability to travel is the enhanced prosperity Chinese consumers have reaped at home — and now bring with them on vacations to purchase foreign goods.
This growing affluence, and the willingness to spend it, has not gone unnoticed by retailers and tourism boards around the globe. Merchant acquirers and payment processors have worked to attract Chinese tourists' spending. Ultimately, this has meant enabling Chinese payment schemes such as Alipay and WeChat Pay at the point of sale.
The sheer magnitude of Chinese travelers and their spend, along with the upward trend, is a significant opportunity.
When it comes to overseas travel spending, Chinese tourists are the leaders by a wide margin. According to the 2018 UN World Tourism Organization [URL='https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419876'](UNWTO) 2018 Highlight report, Chinese tourists as a group outspent visitors from the No. 2 and No. 3 nations (U.S. and Germany, respectively) combined in 2017.
Last year there were 130 million outbound trips made from China to other countries, according to Ctrip, the largest online travel agent in Asia, and the China Tourism Academy (CTA), a specialized institute under the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). The 2017 figure represents a 7 percent increase over 2016’s figure of 122 million travelers.
Morgan Stanley noted in a recent report that the number of ordinary passport holders in China has tripled between 2012 and 2016. This is a clear indication of a country’s population gearing up to travel the world.
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