Chinese Tourists Visiting Overseas

The number of Chinese tourists traveling overseas continued to rise considerably.

The number of Chinese people touring overseas rose to 34.5236 million in 2006, 11.3% over the preceding year. Of these, 5.7244 million people went overseas on official assignment, down 2.8% from 2005; while 28.7991 million went overseas for personal reasons, up 14.6%. The ten front-ranking countries in the order of the number of Chinese visitors on the first leg of their tours were: Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

The number of Chinese people who traveled overseas organized by travel services reached 8.4302 million, up 24%. Of them, 4.0874 million went to foreign countries through the arrangements of travel services, up 30.7%; and 4.3428 million went to Hong Kong and Macau, up 18.3%. Besides, the travel services organized 328,500 persons to tour frontier areas, down 18.6%.

By the end of 2006, Apart from the Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, 78 countries were the destinations of Chinese people's overseas tours. These 78 countries, listed in the order of the time sequence of the opening of their tourist markets to Chinese tourists, were 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, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Finland,Sweden, Czech, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovak, Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mauritius, Tunisia, Seychelles, Kenya, Zambia, Jordan, Northern Mariana Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu, United Kingdom, Chile, Jamaica, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Laos, Mongolia, Tonga, Grenada and Bahamas.

In 2006, 14.334 million Chinese mainland residents visited Hong Kong on the first leg of their tours, up 6%; and 9.895 million tourists from Chinese mainland visited Macau, up 16.7%.

First-leg Oversea Countries	Reception of Chinese Mainland Tourists (Unit in 1,000 persons)	Growth (%)
Singapore	557.2	16.8
Malaysia	435.2	22.7
the Philippines	138.3	16.1
South Korea	1,098.2	30.2
Australia	345.0	8.5
New Zealand	58.6	1.8
Japan	1,280.0	14.6
Vietnam	506.6	-40.0
Cambodia	82.3	83.8
Myanmar	101.6	-61.5
Brunei	2.8	50.6
Malta	0.6	-24.4
Turkey	17.2	20.7
Egypt	21.7	69.7
Nepal	15.7	-20.6
Germany	257.7	12.2
India	47.1	37.9
Maldives	6.5	173.1
Sri Lanka	7.3	79.7
South Africa	31.7	-4.4
Croatia	0.8	55.1
Hungary	17.9	-0.2
Pakistan	29.5	10.1
Cuba	3.3	-30.9