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2008 by all accounts was a big year for Chinese to travel abroad. Even with blizzards during last years, Chinese New Year, the Sichuan earthquake in May, and the Olympic Games in Beijing in August about 46 million mainland tourists traveled overseas. This incredible number of outbound tourists was up 12% from 2007, according to the National Tourism Administration of China.

It was reported in the China Daily that during this Spring Festival, our lunar holiday that commenced last week  we could expect to see about 50 million Chinese traveling overseas, an increase of 9%. It was reported that the top destinations are the U.S., particularly New York, Europe, Australia and Japan. The key motivation for this travel was shopping.

The Chinese traveler should not be underestimated in their power to drive tourist dollars. Last year, each Chinese travelers spent an average of $1,359 per person–on luxury goods in Europe, according to Nielson Co. and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Previously, the UN World Tourism Organization said China would become the fourth largest source of outbound tourists in the world by the mid-2010s, instead of the original forecast of 2020. The organization’s Asia-Pacific representative, Xu Jing has also been quoted as saying “Nearly 19 percent of Chinese people (or 250 million) wish to travel abroad, and this number will double in 2010.”

With such a huge market potential for travel related industry it is no surprise many travel products and even International countries wanting to promote themselves as a destination are looking to engage with domestic advertising campaigns. At SinoTech Group, we are now seeing more local in-market companies like B&B’s (Bed and Breakfast) Hotels and local tour operators trying to reach into the Chinese market. Whereas,  previously it was just the large multinational airlines and hotel chains doing the bulk of the media campaigns. Look for this trend to continue!