100 million Chinese tourists

China Tourism Academy released a report recently, 2015 Annual Development Report of Chinese Outbound Tourism, indicating that the number of outbound travelers from China has exceeded 100 million for the first time, making China the single largest tourist exporting country in the world for three consecutive years. It is estimated that the growth momentum is going to remain throughout 2015. The report also points out that UnionPay have become the preferred payment brand among outbound Chinese travelers.

According to the statistics, the number of Chinese outbound tourists in 2014 totaled 107 million, a year-on-year growth of 19.5%. It is expected that the year 2015 will see a year-on-year growth of 16% or higher.

The report indicates that UnionPay has become the preferred payment service provider of Chinese outbound travelers, offering its services through a network of 26 million merchants and 1.9 million ATMs across over 150 countries and regions. Meanwhile, an increasing number of overseas merchants consider acceptance of UnionPay cards an important way to attract customers, especially Chinese customers. Therefore, UnionPay acceptance has become an important criterion for assessing the level of satisfaction of Chinese travelers with their overseas travel experience.

Research results show total expenditures for outbound tourism have grown to 164.8 billion USD in 2014. The report states that the development of the payment networks such as UnionPay has made payment more convenient in an outbound trip every step of the way, which drives the growth momentum in outbound tourism.

A survey on the levels of satisfaction of Chinese outbound travelers with the top 24 destinations shows that New Zealand, Singapore, America, Canada and Australia are the highest-ranking in terms of customer satisfaction, taking into account their abilities to meet high demands of Chinese tourist handbooks, Chinese restaurants, television programs in Chinese as well as UnionPay acceptance.

The report also indicates payment via UnionPay cards in overseas destinations most popular among Chinese travelers has become very convenient. At present, almost all merchants accepting signature-based cards in Korea accept UnionPay credit cards, with another 1.37 million merchants accepting pin-based UnionPay cards. In Singapore, UnionPay cards are accepted by all ATMs and over 70% of merchants, in the US, 90% of ATMs and 80% of merchants and in Australia, more than 80% of ATMs and nearly 50% of merchants, covering most of the places frequented by tourists.