The 8445 km expressway connecting Russia and China and the “Belt and Road” initiative paved the way for Chinese tourists to tap the less traveled destinations, such as Kazakhstan, Russia, Finland and Turkey.
Eyeing the Chinese outbound travel market, WeChat has been expanding its mobile payment services beyond the border.
Chinese visitors spent an estimated USD 2.58 billion in Singapore last year, increasing 39 percent or USD 732 million dollars from 2015.
Chinese tourist arrivals to Europe grew 65% in the first half of 2017. More than half of these tourists were over 50 years old.
Chinese travelers on average spent USD 3,623 (RMB 24,945) on international travel in the last 12 months, more than a quarter (28%) of their income.
China’s airlines carried 263 million passengers in the first half of 2017, up by 13.4%. Total turnover rose 12.5% to 51.34 billion ton-kilometers during the time.
Research shows that Australia is third on the list of destinations Chinese tourists intend on traveling to in the next 12 months, down from being No 1 last year.
The number of foreign pilots hired by Chinese airlines has taken off in recent years as China grew to be the world's second largest aviation market.