ABSTRACT

Since 2012, China can also claim to be the biggest international outbound tourism source market. In 2014, 1 out of 10 border crossings in international travel took place across the border of Mainland China, albeit in more than half of the cases already ending in the special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau. Statistics on tourism almost always have to be treated with caution; this is even more so the case for China. However, even keeping in mind that all numbers connected with Chinese outbound tourism have to be taken as indicators rather than exact figures, there is no doubt that the waves of Chinese tourists, spending more per person and day than almost all other customer groups and exploring ever more exotic locations, have just started. The quest for knowledge, prestige, and self-actualization; the search for education and business opportunities; and the creation of escape routes away from Chinese institutions by affluent Chinese for both themselves and their money are among the ever more differentiated motives for the Chinese temporarily leaving their motherland.