China’s inbound and outbound visitor count grew 9.8% to a total of 127 million in the first half of 2016, according to the latest data from China National Tourism Administration (CNTA). Inbound tourist arrivals grew 4.5% YoY to 65.1 million and the outbound visitor number was 61.9 million, 3.2 million lower than the inbound figure. 

China’s inbound tourism market has been growing steadily since it registered the first increase in three years last year. Data show that overseas visitors made 6.223 million trips to China in the first quarter of 2016, up by 10.9% YoY, and overnight overseas visitors increased by 8.6% YoY to 4.789 million.      

Tianming Gao, a researcher of China Tourism Research Center of Social Sciences, said that both outbound tourism and inbound tourism are becoming more segmented, individualized and more visitors are traveling independently. He said travel companies should take into account these trends when designing products or services for the Silk Road Travel, and they should exploit specialized segments such as business trips and wellness tourism. (Translated by Jerry)