China leads global tourism spending

According to industry predictions, Chinese consumers will account for more than 30 percent of all luxury purchases worldwide in 2014 and even 50 percent by 2020. Many of those purchases are made abroad while on a pleasure or business trip as Chinese consumers are the world’s top tourism spenders

according to the “Digital IQ Index - Luxury China 2014” report by New Yorker business intelligence service L2.

Chinese

tourists spent a whopping 129 billion US dollars on purchases in 2013, far ahead of US and German tourists who spent 86 and 85 billion US dollars, respectively. The UK and Russia are next with tourist purchases amounting to around 52 and 51 billion US dollars, respectively. France and Japan followed with 45 and 20 billion US dollars, respectively.

Looking at the figure below, one can clearly see that while the tendency of the other countries in terms of consumer spending abroad is on an upward trend (with the exception of Japan), none is as dramatic as that of Chinese tourism spending from 1995 to 2013 as the number of Chinese going abroad increased dramatically as well.

Chinese tourists lead by per transaction spending as well

The Chinese also lead in terms of per transaction spending, which averages 1,130 US dollars per transaction, compared to Russia for example with 494 US dollars per transaction.

An astounding fact that should be kept in mind is that currently, only five percent of Chinese citizens hold a passport, opening the potential for future growth tremendously, especially in view of an ever expanding Chinese middle class ready to explore the world.

Images: Chinese tourists in Paris (zoetnet)/tourism spending (Luxury China 2014)