Chinese tourists spend more in US in 2011

QINGDAO -- Chinese tourists spent an average of $7,107 each while visiting the US last year, up 14 percent from a year ago, a senior official from the National Tourism Administration said Tuesday.

Chinese made a total of 1.36 million trips to the US in 2011, with package tourists staying in the country for 11 days on average, NTA chief Shao Qiwei said at a China-US tourism cooperation conference held in east China's city of Qingdao.

Chinese tourists to the US increased from 710,000 in 2007 to 1.36 million last year, growing by 17.6 percent annually during the period, Shao said.

Meanwhile, US tourists to China stayed in the country for 12.6 days on average in 2011, with per capita consumption reaching $2,348, Shao said.

China and the US are each other's fourth-largest tourism destinations, Shao said, predicting that the citizens of both nations will make a total of 5 million trips to each other's countries by 2015. The number stood at 3.5 million last year, according to official data.