BEIJING, 29th June 2010 — China’s outbound tourists may reach or top 100 million holiday journeys in the next five to ten years, predicted the 10th World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), recently held in Beijing.

The WTTC also said that China’s domestic tourists will reach 2.8 billion journeys in five to ten years and the inbound tourists to China will take about 100 million holiday journeys by then.

Both China’s domestic and outbound tourism have achieved rapid development over the past two years. In 2009, China’s domestic tourists made 1.9 billion holiday journeys. The total of inbound overnight tourist journeys reached 50 million.

Meanwhile, 47.66 million Chinese tourists traveled outbound in 2009. China has grown into the largest tourist source country in Asia.

In the first quarter of this year, the number of China’s domestic tourist journeys rose eight per cent year on year to 610 million. Domestic tourism income amounted to 343 billion yuan (US$50.470 billion), up 20 per cent year on year.