Foreign destinations make strong bid to lure Chinese travelers

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Israel Tourism Authority signed a strategic agreement with China's major online travel agency Tuniu.com at the expo.

It hopes to attract 100,000 tourists annually by the end of 2017, says Bora Shnitman, Israel's top tourism official in China.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Israel has maintained a 40 percent growth rate over recent years, and is expected to reach 68,000 this year.

Israel has just signed a 10-year multi-entry visa deal with China and visitors from China will be able to take advantage of that soon.

Although the growth in outbound tourists from China dropped to 9.8 percent in 2015 and the yuan's depreciation poses challenges, outbound tourism still has great potential, says Dai Bin, the head of China Tourism Academy.

On average, the Chinese are expected to travel five times each year by 2020 and that translates to 7 billion domestic travelers and 200 million outbound travelers, says Dai.

Chinese mainlanders spent $215 billion on outbound travel in 2015, up 53 percent over the previous year, says a report from the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp says that increasingly favorable visa policies, paid vacations and improving living standards are expected to boost the number of outbound travelers to 242 million in 2024.

The Chinese are expected to spend $422 billion on travel by 2020, according to a joint report by the Fung Business Intelligence Center and China Luxury Advisors.