The total revenue of Chinese travel and tourism industry amounted to 2.57 trillion yuan as of 2012, up 14.2 percent compared to the previous year. Directly, the industry contributed 2.6 percent to China's gross domestic product (GDP) and provided around 22 million jobs or as much as 62 million if indirect employment is included as of 2011.

The number of domestic trips totaled 2.6 billion as of 2011. In terms of international visitor arrivals, around 135 million visitors were counted, of whom 58 million stayed overnight. Revenue from inbound tourism reached 48.5 billion U.S. dollars.

For outbound tourism, around 70 million Chinese traveled abroad in 2011 and spent nearly 73 billion U.S. dollars. The most popular travel destination was Hong Kong with 13 million visits followed by Macau and South Korea.

The topics tourism worldwide and cruise industry are presented in separate dossiers.

Overview of the most important facts:

Market value of the Chinese travel market in 2010 and a prediction for 2020, according to domestic and foreign travel

China's revenue from tourism from 2005 to 2012

China's revenue from international tourism from 2007 to 2011

International tourism expenditure of Chinese tourists from 2008 to 2011

Photo: istockphoto.com / hronos7; sxc.hu / kolobsek

• • Key figures
  • Chinese tourists
  • Inbound tourism
• • Consumer behavior
  • Online travel market & travel agencies