China Tourism Academy: Big data on outbound tourism in the first half of 2023

Figure 1: The proportion of mainland tourists received by outbound tourism destinations in six continents in the first half of the year

2. Popular regions for outbound travel: East Asia and Southeast Asia are the top choices

Among the 19 typical regions in the world, East Asia and Southeast Asia, with convenient transportation and visas as well as rich tourism resources, received the largest number of outbound tourists, accounting for 83.92% and 8.59% respectively. From the perspective of popular destinations, Hong Kong, Macao, China, and Taiwan, China are the main destinations for outbound tourism, accounting for 79.89% of the outbound tourists. Neighboring countries such as Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam maintained a high popularity. Long-distance outbound tourism in developed countries such as Europe and the United States recovered rapidly. The United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries ranked relatively high in terms of tourist volume.

Figure 2: The proportion of outbound tourists from the mainland received by each typical region in the first half of the year

Figure 3 Distribution of outbound travel destinations in the first half of the year

Table 1 Top 20 popular outbound tourism destinations in the first half of the year

3. Duration of stay at outbound travel destinations: Tourists stay longest at a single destination along the Belt and Road

As the cooperation related to the Belt and Road Initiative continues to deepen, the willingness of mainland residents to travel to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative has increased, and they stay longer. Among the top 20 destinations with the longest stay in a single tourist destination, 70% are countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. The average stay of mainland tourists in Thailand, Spain, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Fiji, Malaysia, Maldives, Cuba and other countries is more than 3 days. Data monitoring shows that the average stay of mainland tourists in a single destination is 2.23 days, and the longest stay in a single destination in Asia is 2.41 days. From the perspective of 19 typical regions, tourists stay the longest in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, which are 2.64 days, 2.61 days, and 2.46 days respectively.

Figure 4 Average length of stay of mainland outbound tourists in a single destination in a typical region in the first half of the year (unit: day)

Figure 6: The 20 destinations where mainland outbound tourists stayed the longest in the first half of the year

II. Source of outbound tourists

1. Distribution of outbound tourists’ origins: Tourists from economically developed provinces and cities have become the main force of outbound tourism

In the first half of the year, the source of outbound tourists was mainly concentrated in economically developed provinces and cities with high income levels. Tourists from Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces and cities became the main force of outbound tourism. More than 90% of outbound tourists from the mainland (mainland) were concentrated in the top 10 provinces and cities, with Guangdong Province alone accounting for 67.56%. Outbound tourists from the TOP20 source cities accounted for 81.90% of the total, with first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen accounting for 35.6%. New first-tier cities such as Dongguan, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Chongqing, and second-tier cities such as Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Foshan, and Quanzhou in the Pearl River Delta region all accounted for a high proportion of tourists, with Zhuhai alone accounting for 27.84%.

Figure 7 Proportion of outbound tourists from each province in the first half of the year

Figure 8 Top 20 cities that account for the largest share of outbound tourists in the first half of the year

2. Length of stay of tourists from source areas: Outbound tourists from the eastern region stay for 2.51 days at a single destination

Outbound tourists from the mainland are increasingly inclined to perceive and experience the local lifestyle. Data monitoring shows that the average length of stay of outbound tourists from the eastern region at a single destination is 2.51 days. From a provincial perspective, the average length of stay of outbound tourists from Xinjiang, Tianjin, Chongqing, Jiangsu, and Shanghai at a single destination is more than 2.5 days. From a city perspective, the average length of stay of tourists from Ili and Xilin Gol at a single destination is more than 3 days, and tourists from Bortala, Yangzhou, Urumqi, Suqian, Kunming, Lishui and other cities stay for more than 2.7 days. The average length of stay of outbound tourists from new first-tier cities that are "rich and free" at a single destination is 2.5 days, higher than other types of cities.

Figure 9 Top 20 cities by average length of stay of tourists in a single destination in the first half of the year (unit: day)

3. Overseas Travel

1. Overseas travel destinations: More than 60% of overseas tourists are concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region

Except for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the proportion of mainland tourists who choose to travel abroad is 20.11%, of which more than 60% of the tourists are located in the Asia-Pacific region. From the perspective of popular destinations, Thailand and Japan are in the first echelon, receiving more than 10% of the tourists who travel abroad. Singapore and South Korea are in the second echelon, receiving 5%-10%. Myanmar, the United States, Australia, Malaysia and Vietnam are in the third echelon, receiving 3%-5%. From the distribution of 19 typical regions, Southeast Asia is the most popular, receiving more than 40% of mainland tourists who travel abroad, and 20% of the tourists who travel abroad go to East Asia.

Table 2 Ranking of destinations receiving mainland tourists in the first half of the year in terms of the proportion of outbound tourists

2. Overseas travel preferences: Tourists from the northeast and western regions prefer to travel abroad, while tourists from the central and eastern regions have more scattered destinations.

From the perspective of preferences of different regions, tourists from the northeast and western regions prefer to travel abroad, with more than 50% of tourists choosing to travel abroad, and 40% of tourists from the central region choose to travel abroad. From the perspective of travel destinations, the destinations of tourists from the northeast and western regions are relatively concentrated. Tourists from the northeast are mainly concentrated in Japan and South Korea, while tourists from the western region prefer Myanmar and Thailand. In contrast, the outbound travel destinations of the eastern and central regions are more dispersed, and the proportion of those choosing long-distance travel destinations has increased. They all tend to go to Thailand, Japan and Singapore, and the proportion of long-distance travel destinations in Europe and the United States, such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany has increased.