AKIPRESS.COM - China will overtake the U.S. this year as the largest overseas tourism market measured by travelers and continue to grow, Xinhua reported referring to the industry's biggest global distribution system provider.

Chinese will make up 20 percent of the world's foreign tourists by 2023, a report by Spain-based Amadeus IT Group SA said. The number of Chinese families able to afford overseas holidays will double in the next 10 years.

China's robust economic growth and increasing consumer spending are spurring the trade in tourism to outside the country, the report said.

“Chinese travelers' passions for outbound tourism are unstoppable,” Jiang Yiyi, director of the China Tourism Academy's international tourism development division, said. Academy statistics show the number of outbound travel trips increased 18 percent to 98 million in 2013 and could reach 114 million this year. China became the largest outbound travel market, measured by total spending, in 2012, accounting for 9.5 percent of the global total.

Amadeus' report said Asia, particularly its Northeast region, will become more important to the business-travel market because volumes in the West won't recover to pre-2008 levels until 2018.

China may also exceed the U.S. as the largest market for business-travel spending as early as 2015. Spending to grow 17.8 percent year-on-year to $309 billion in 2015, as economic growth remains steady, although slowing. Domestic travel is the main driver, making up about 95 percent of spending on Chinese business travel.

Chinese airlines still benefit from business travel, although growth is slower than in previous years. Air China Ltd's sales revenue from first- and business-class seats rose 7 percent year-on-year in 2013, according to its annual report. Passenger numbers for the two premier cabins of China Southern Airlines Co Ltd grew 14.5 percent in 2013 compared with the previous year.