'Not Korea or Japan'... The Place Visited by 1 in 2 Overseas Chinese Tourists in the First Half of This Year?

40.37 Million Mainland Chinese Tourists Overseas in First Half of Year
20.54 Million Visited Macao... 3.06 Million Visited Korea

In the first half of this year, the number of mainland Chinese traveling abroad reached 40 million, with half of them choosing Macau as their destination.

On the 26th, Hong Kong Ming Pao reported this citing recent data released by the China Culture and Tourism Industry Research Institute. According to this data, a total of 40.37 million people from mainland China traveled abroad in the first half of this year. Asia accounted for an overwhelming majority of 93.9% of their destinations, with 20.54 million tourists heading to Macau, representing 50.9% of all overseas tourists.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Hong Kong, once the most visited destination by mainland Chinese, accounted for only 26.7%, slightly more than half of Macau's share. Following Macau and Hong Kong, the countries attracting mainland Chinese tourists were Thailand (16.3%, 6.58 million), Japan (12.1%, 4.88 million), Singapore (8.7%, 3.51 million), South Korea (7.6%, 3.06 million), and Myanmar (5%, 2.01 million) in that order.

The mainland Chinese region with the highest number of outbound tourists was Guangdong Province, which borders Hong Kong and Macau. Travelers from Guangdong accounted for 67.6% of all tourists. Next were high-income eastern coastal regions including the capital Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China implemented a 'zero-COVID' policy, strictly controlling entry and exit, and only fully reopened its borders in January. In February, group tours to 20 countries were first allowed, followed by the addition of 40 countries for group tours in March. Finally, on the 10th, group tours were permitted to 78 countries including South Korea, the United States, and Japan. Also on the 10th, visa-free group tours to Russia, which had been suspended since the COVID-19 outbreak, were resumed.

Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral in Macau. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. [Photo source=Pixabay]

Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macau have been actively running large-scale campaigns to attract overseas tourists this year by distributing hundreds of thousands of free airline tickets. The Hong Kong government launched the 'Hello Hong Kong' campaign in March with an investment of 2 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately 311.7 billion KRW). Through this campaign, they provided 500,000 free airline tickets to travelers worldwide, along with travel vouchers, drink coupons, and various discount coupons. Macau also announced plans in February to distribute 120,000 free airline tickets this year to attract tourists from mainland China, Taiwan, and overseas.