China has risen to become the world’s fourth most-popular destination and sixth-biggest spender on outbound tourism.
It is also ranks fifth in the world for tourism turnover, according to the Pacific-Asia Travel Association.
The country boasts half of all the hotels under construction in the PATA region, with more than 700 hotels and 222,000 rooms being built. Bejing added almost 2,300 rooms last year and Shanghai 1,900.
However, PATA strategic intelligence director John Koldowski warned some of the figures were misleading since so many overseas visits to China originate in Hong Kong.
Koldowski said: “Hong Kong generates 80 million trips a year to China and does distort the figures.”
Elsewhere in Asia, demand is outpacing the supply of rooms and rates are soaring. Average hotel rates in South Asia rose 26% last year to $206 per night, according to PATA – almost double the average in South-East Asia.
Koldowski said: “Rooms in Mumbai or New Delhi can be $500 a night at times – if you can get a room.”