IPK International publishes the Chinese Outbound Travel Monitor 2000

IPK International, publisher of the “World Travel Monitor” and a leading company for worldwide tourism marketing and tourism research, announces the publication of “The Chinese Outbound Monitor 2000”. This is for the first time since IPK International started monitoring travel behavior around the world that the travel experts focus on one of the fastest growing tourism markets worldwide. “The results of our studies show that the Chinese outbound travel will have an increasing impact on the tourism industries all around the world over the next years”, says Rolf D. Freitag, President and CEO of the IPK International Group.

In 2000, travelers from China made 7.4 million trips - 5.1 million of them originating from the Mainland and 2.3 million from the new autonomous provinces Hong Kong and Macao. Outbound trips is defined by journeys outside of the Chinese language area including Chinese Taipei (former Taiwan). 59 per cent of outbound travel goes to Asia and 28 percent to Europe. Preferred destination countries are Thailand (0.8 million travelers) Japan (0.6 million), Russia (0.5 million) and South Korea (0.4 million). Most popular destinations in Europe are Germany and France.

Average growth in the last decade was +17 per cent per year from Mainland and +3 per cent from the autonomous provinces.

For 2001 IPK International expects 6.2 million outbound trips from Mainland China already. The 10 million limit will be reached in 2004 latest. This projection is based on an average growth of outbound travel from Mainland by 17 percent during the last decade. Travel from Hong Kong and Macao grew by an average of 3 percent in that time. ”Including the autonomous provinces China will surpass Japan in tourism market influence in 2006, and will become the outbound leader in Asia”, Freitag says reflecting on IPK International results.

The Chinese Travel Monitor has been realized by IPK and its Chinese team in Shanghai. The questionnaire applied is the same as for all other more than 40 IPK Monitors around the globe. Total interviews in Mainland China were 30,818 with an outcome of 1,645 reported outbound trips for calendar year 2000. IPK will continue to monitor China in 2001 as well as in the future years.