Under the impetus of globalization, China's outbound tourism is developing rapidly. At the same time, inbound tourism is also maintains steady growth and has great potential.
In 2015, China received 133 million inbound visitors and realized an international tourism revenue of $ 113.65 billion, up 4.0% and 7.8% year-on-year, respectively. Among them, the number of foreign visitors nearly reached 26 million, accounting for 19 % of the total number of inbound visitors.
Among the provinces and cities in China, the top five of the most popular destinations for foreign inbound visitors are Guangdong, Shanghai, Yunnan, Beijing and Zhejiang. Guangdong province received 7.84 million foreign visitors in 2015, far ahead of other provinces and cities. Ningxia Hui autonomous region that ranked last received only 20,000 foreign visitors.
From the point of view of the destination choice of foreign visitors, foreigners prefer to go to the first-line port cities, and followed by the cities of more developed economy or rich tourist resources.
Although the number of foreign visitors is small, it covers a wide geographical range, they nearly come from all over the world. It is clear that the largest number of foreigners from Asian countries, a total of 16.594 million. This may be related to geographical proximity and cultural similarities. Attracting more foreigners from other continents may be a big entry point into China's inbound tourism development.
Among Asian countries, the number of inbound visitors from south Korea to China is far ahead. By contrast, north Korea ranks last. The number of inbound visitors from south Korea to China is 23 times higher than that from north Korea. So it's not just Chinese going to south Korea and Japan, but south Koreans and Japanese coming to China. Outbound tourism and inbound tourism are mutually reinforcing.
Among the foreign visitors, 25-44 years old are the most, accounting for nearly half of the total number. The second largest number was foreigners aged 45 to 64 years, with foreigners aged 25 to 64 accounting for about 82 per cent of the total. Young and middle-aged people are the main force of foreigners to China. Of course, they are also the main target consumer groups of inbound tourism in China.
From the purpose, sightseeing and leisure are the main motivation for foreigners to come to China. There are nearly 8.25 million foreigners came to China for sightseeing and leisure in 2015. It is worth noting that foreigners who come to work in China also occupy a large proportion. To some extent, it also puts pressure on China's employment.
China's inbound tourism is developing steadily, but its attraction to foreigners is not enough. As can be seen from the truth that foreigners only account for 19% of the total number of inbound visitors. How to attract more foreigners is a big problem in the development of China's inbound tourism.