A BBC report says that the Chinese have become the largest source of global tourism income spending $102 billion abroad in 2012. The report from the UN World Tourism says that this increase is due to higher incomes, looser travel restrictions, and a strengthening currency. These are all very good economic signs for China.
It also shows that citizens are able to travel all over the world and experiencing other cultures. The article says that one of the major reasons that the Chinese spend so much money abroad is because they want to bring back a lot of souvenirs for their relatives and friends.
That total is an increase of 40 percent from last year, which exemplifies how quickly the Chinese economy has started increasing. The US on the other hand, only increased by 6 percent. It seems that US tourists are spending less, which mirrors our slow economic growth right now.
These numbers may seem insignificant for China because the money is being spent outside of their borders, but it still has great economic implications. The emergence of citizens with more cash to spend shows that there are more jobs that pay higher.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22037233
Russia is also emerging as a source of global tourism. The rising tourist expenditures is largely indicative of a growing middle class. This definitely is good news for China as they strive to become an emerging economy. I wonder if China will boost spending on tourism inside its own borders? This way it attracts those living in China who have never seen parts of their own country and foreigners as well.
Though it is encouraging to see the rising percentage of foreign expenditures from China as it is indicative of the health of the Chinese economy, I have to wonder how sustainable the increase is, given recent concerns of China’s slow growth. How has the increased tourism from one of the largest populations helped other economies?
Coming from a country that is very close to China, geographically, and one with a very high tourist attractions, I can definitely say that the most number of tourists I see are the Chinese. While it could be the case that they are there only because the two countries are close to each other, I do also believe that the Chinese travel in a lot of other countries too.
I also come from a tourist neighborhood in Kathmandu, Nepal. Every tourist shops now have Chinese characters written in their entrances. People owning shops for tourist souvenirs now speak Chinese fluently, some of them even better than they speak English. This one Chinese I met spoke to me in Nepali, and on being asked if the reason he learnt Nepali was because he comes here too often,
he laughed and told me he knew 8 other languages besides Chinese, including German, French, Italian and some others, and he is a frequent tourist to all these places. So yes, I do believe the Chinese have a lot in their pockets to spend time travelling.
I agree with Shue’s comment, that the growth they are experiencing is not something that will likely be maintained in the long-term. This is another indicator of China’s rapid recent growth.
My sense is that Hong Kong and Macao are treated as “foreign” destinations, skewing the numbers a bit. But just do a back of the envelope calculation: if the middle / upper class numbers 300 million, that’s a lot bigger than the US or Europe. Not all have either the wherewithal or the interest to travel in other countries, but it should not be surprising that such tourism now exceeds that of the (depressed) level of the US or Europe.