Report reveals outbound tourism trends

Chinese tourists spent $128.7 billion overseas in 2013, up 26.8 percent on the year before

More than half of China's outbound tourists are from the post-80s generation, and traveling the world as a family has become more popular in recent years, according to a market research report on tourism.

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The World Tourism Cities Federation, or WTCF, released the report to give its member cities and organizations a better understanding of China's outbound tourism market. The survey was designed and carried out by Ipsos, a France-based market research company, in July.

In 2013, 98.19 million Chinese tourists traveled abroad, an 18 percent increase year-on-year. Outbound tourists spent a total of $128.7 billion last year, an increase of 26.8 percent from 2012.

In terms of destinations, the four most popular were cities in South Korea and Japan, involving Seoul, Busan, Sapporo and Kwangju. They are all WTCF's member cities.

Among the outbound tourists, 56.21 percent were born after the 1980s and 59.25 percent of them were married with young children.

According to the survey, the incomes of China's outbound tourists were relatively high, with an average of 11,512 yuan ($1,872), almost three times the average income of people in major cities in the country.

The one-child policy and being brought up in a nuclear family mean the post-80s generation tends to focus more on children.

Traveling abroad with children to enrich their life experience is a new characteristic of China's outbound tourism. The report said that WTCF's member cities could create family tour routes and family-related products to cater to this growing segment.

As the family demographic has accounted for a major part of Chinese outbound tourism, travel services tended to be more digitalized and travel patterns were more diversified, according to the report.