The Global Travel Boom.

The Real book is China and the figures of what that means is stunning. Chinese citizens now spend more on travel than both the United States and Germany. In 2012 Chinese travelers spent $102 billion on international travel over 40 percent up from 2011, according to Hotels.com. In the first three quarters of 2013 saw an increase in expenditure of 28% from 2012.
Europe too had 29 million tourists, a 5 % growth. It was spurred on by Central and Eastern Europe with a 7 % increase while Southern Europe and Mediterranean Europe rose 6 %.  Asia and the Pacific also had an overall 6% increase in travel spend.

South America and the Caribbean were the poorest performers at this time but they too all have a growing market.

But the real news  is all about China, which will soon be  a tourism colossus,

Here are the facts as reported by the Chinese International Travel Monitor (CITM) from Hotels.com:

“- 75 percent of global hoteliers say Chinese travelers now account for up to five percent of their business. Nearly half (45 percent) say they have experienced an increase in Chinese guests over the last year, with the greatest increases coming in APAC (61 percent).  Hoteliers see China as a positive growth market over the next three years with one in 10 expecting to see an increase of more than 50 percent and almost half (47 percent) anticipating an 11-50 percent rise”.

Overall more people everywhere are travelling and most of these the new rising middle class who are exploring the world visiting new countries. Its those Millennials again — see the  blog on how Mariotte is focusing its product for this new market.

Millennials