Macau sees 17.1% rise in Chinese tourists, but Taiwan sees a fall
Chinese visitors to Macau increased by 17.1% in 2015, according to latest figures, marking the largest recorded growth of mainland tourists. However, Taiwan has witnessed a fall due to a rise in political tensions. This drop is already hitting self-ruled Taiwan, particularly the hotel and travel businesses, which has prompted the first major protest by the tourism industry over the deteriorating relations between the Beijing government and Taiwan's new President Tsai Ing-wen. 

Last week, China Tourism Academy and UnionPay International released the Annual Report on China’s Outbound Tourism (2016). This latest report shows that China’s visitors to Macau increased by 17.1 percent in 2015, marking the greatest recorded growth of mainland tourists compared to Taiwan.

Macau, along with Hong Kong and Taiwan, continue to be the top three travel destinations for Mainland China’s tourists. Around 85 million tourist arrivals have been recorded in the three regions, representing an increase of 18.47 percent year- on-year. The number accounts for 73.3 percent of China’s outbound tourism in 2015.

The top ten destinations following the aforementioned regions are Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the US, Singapore, Russia, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia.

With respect to other regions, Thailand and Japan have seen the greatest growth in terms of Chinese tourists, with 88 percent more Chinese visiting both countries.

The number of Chinese outbound tourists hit 117 million last year, which represents an increase of 9.8 percent year- on-year. However, the growth is way much smaller than that registered in 2014, when a 20 percent yearly increase was recorded.

Dean of China’s Tourism Academy, Dai Bin, predicted Chinese outbound tourists to increase by 11.5 percent, reaching the mark of 133 million in 2016. Bin also believes that China’s outbound tourism market will continue to grow steadily.

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