China surpasses France as the world's fourth largest tourist consumer

"International Financial Times Beijing," The United Nations World Tourism Organization announced in Wednesday, China more than France in 2009 years, the world's fourth largest tourism consumer country.　　China's outbound travel spending in 2009 was as high as $43.7 billion, up 21% from 2008 ($ 36.2 billion).　　Germany remains the world's largest tourist consumer, with outbound travel spending of $80.8 billion, but less than $91 billion trillion in the previous year, followed by the United States and Britain. The World Tourism Organization estimates that China's outbound travel will reach 100 million by 2020 (2005 to 31 million).　　"China's tourism market is developing very quickly," said Sandra Carvao, a spokesman for the World Tourism Organization. Since 2000, China's outbound travel has grown at an annual rate of 22%, making it the fastest-growing international tourist consumer in the past 10 years.　　Most of the destinations for China's outbound travel are in other Asian countries, but are slowly shifting to Europe and the United States, where visa policies are widening. Author: Lina compilation