More than 149.72 million Chinese tourists travelled to overseas destinations in 2018, up 14.7% year on year, according to data from Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The number of domestic trips totalled 5.5 billion, up 10.8 percent, the ministry said in an annual report. On the other hand, international tourists to China amounted to 141.2 million last year, also up 1.2%.
Total revenue for the country’s tourism industry reached 5.97 trillion yuan (US$865.22 billion) in the past year, an increase of 10.5% from a year ago.
In addition, Chinese tourists to the US dropped for first time in 15 years amid the ongoing trade war. The latest data from the US National Travel and Tourism Office shows that travel from China to the US fell 5.7% in 2018 to 2.9 million visitors, the first drop since 2003.
Friction between the U.S. and China is one reason for the slowdown, Associate Press said in a report. Economic uncertainty in China has travellers at the lower end of the market vacationing closer to home, Wolfgang Georg Arlt, director of the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute, was quoted as saying.