China To Become World's Second Largest Tourism Market By 2013

China's travel and tourism sector is expected to jump from the sixth place in 2008 to the second place in 2020: according to a report recently released by the Boston Consulting Group.

The report, which is titled "Taking Off: Travel and Tourism in China and Beyond", said that China is expected to surpass Japan as the world's second-largest travel and tourism market by 2013. Travel within China, which currently accounts for most Chinese travel and travel spending, is projected to grow by 16% per year and to be worth CNY3.9 trillion by 2020. Meanwhile, the country's outbound travel market will have grown to triple the size of Japan's.

By 2020, a quarter of all international travelers arriving in Japan and South Korea will come from China, while arrivals from China in Europe will quadruple. In North America, Chinese travelers will rank third among international arrivals. On average, there will be 25 million first-time Chinese travelers every year for the next 10 years.

China's tourism market is forecast to grow by 14% per year for the next decade.