Charting the Boom: Tourism’s Growth Visualised, with One Undisputed Leader.

The growth of the travel and tourism industry has significantly outpaced the rate of population growth over the past few decades.

According to data from the UNWTO, international tourist arrivals have grown at an average annual rate of around 4% over the past several decades. In contrast, global population growth has averaged around 1% to 1.2% per year during the same period.

So why has tourism exploded so much? In a nutshell: better economic conditions in most countries led to rising incomes and extra money for people to spend on travel.

Coupled with improved transportation infrastructure (such as cheaper and more frequent flights) and easier access to information about travel destinations, tourism has created millions of jobs and economic opportunities around the world.

See it in action below (even if you might not be a fan of charts, this is one you will enjoy looking at).

It shows how quickly numbers of tourists have increased over the last two decades. From 400 million in 1995 to over 1.6 billion in 2019.

That’s a 400% increase, which is pretty insane, if you think about the kind of pressures that destinations have faced with a five-fold increase in tourists in a span of just 25 years.

One country stands out amongst all the others in this bar chart: China.

In just under two decades, China went from having fewer departures than Hungary, Poland, Romania and Malaysia, to surpassing the largest markets in the world.

Over the past few decades, China’s rapid economic growth has directly led to it becoming one of the most important players in the global travel and tourism industry. According to the World Bank, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty over the past forty years.

The reason behind the inexorable rise of Chinese departures? Again, the answer is economics. When we combine per capita income with departures (per the bubble chart below) we can see how an increase in GDP per capita has corresponded to a growth in visitor arrivals.

With increasing disposable income, more Chinese citizens have been able to afford international travel. This demographic shift has been crucial in driving the growth of outbound tourism from China.

Here's another chart to see this in action:

Size of the bubble reflects the total population, with GDP per capita on the x axis and departures on the y axis. Over time, as Chinese GDP per capita increases, we see departures rise significantly.

Chinese outbound tourism is not just about leisure travel; it also includes cultural and educational exchanges. Many Chinese students study abroad, and their families often visit them, contributing to the overall volume of outbound travel.

These factors have collectively contributed to China's rise as one of the largest and most important markets for outbound tourism in the world today.