The China Tourism Academy has published “2014 Development Report on the Inbound Tourism of China”.
The report shows that in 2013 China received 12,907,800 trips from inbound visitors, a 2.51% drop compared with 2012. Of these trips 55,685,900 trips are overnight visitors, a 3.53% drop from last year. China’s reported foreign currency revenue in 2013 was US$51.664 billion, a 3.27% increase from last year. China is ranked number 4 globally in terms of the total size of its inbound tourism market. China also ranked 4th globally in the amount of foreign currency revenue from inbound tourism following France, USA, and Spain.
The global tourism industry is in recovery with the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions leading development. In 2013 global inbound tourism had 1.087 billion trips, a 5% increase from last year.
Inbound visitors to China in 2013 had a satisfaction index of 75.46 which is the “General Satisfaction” level. This figure is 11.41 points lower than in 2012. The main reasons for the drop in the level of satisfaction are environmental conditions (Ex: air pollution in Beijing), lack of barrier-free facilities for the disabled, water shortages, and quality of water in urban areas.
In recent years China’s travel industry has already become familiar with new marketing trends. Besides using traditional methods such as overseas exhibitions and showcase events, the industry is becoming more sophisticated in leveraging new media to better target overseas travelers.(Translation by David)
