With the easing of post-pandemic travel restrictions, an increasing number of people from mainland China are choosing to travel abroad. On Thursday (6th), Alipay released data on outbound tourism for the first six months of this year, indicating that the top three cities in terms of outbound travel volume are Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, with popular destinations being Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and Thailand. Per capita spending has increased by 24% compared to 2019.
Currently, Alipay has over 5 million merchants connected to its platform, covering more than 70 countries and regions. The aforementioned data is based on Alipay transaction amounts and reflects user spending behavior overseas. The data shows that from January to June this year, the per capita spending of Alipay users on outbound travel increased by 24% compared to 2019. The top ten cities in terms of outbound travel volume are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Hangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Chengdu, and Wuhan. Among them, Hangzhou stands out with a 42% increase in per capita outbound travel expenditure compared to 2019, showing a significant growth rate.
In terms of popular destinations, based on transaction amounts, the top ten outbound travel destinations for the first half of this year are Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Thailand, France, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.
Reports indicate that Chinese tourists have once again become an important driving force for the global tourism industry and offline consumption. For instance, according to the latest data to be released by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the country has already received over 1.4 million Chinese tourists from January until now.