China's outbound tourists to exceed 600m in five years

BEIJING - Over 600 million Chinese tourists will travel abroad in the next five years, according to data from China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).

In the first half of the year, China's outbound tourists reached over 59 million, according to CNTA data.

Thanks to relaxed visa policies and rising disposable income, the number of China's outbound tourists has kept growing in the past decade.

China had the world's largest number of outbound tourists in 2015. About 120 million Chinese traveled overseas in 2015, up from 109 million the previous year, according to the CNTA.

This was an increase of 19.5 percent year on year and nearly 13 times the level in 1998, said the CNTA.

Meanwhile, China's booming domestic tourism market saw over 4 billion journeys in 2015, generating tourism revenue of over 4 trillion yuan ($620 billion).