I found this very interesting article in the New York Times the other day about how the next influx of tourism is Chinese. Entitled “Next Wave of Camera-Wielding Tourists is from China,” go read it now before they make you pay for an archived article. I’ll do my best to summarize it here:

In the 1980’s, it was the Japanese who decidedly burst onto the world travel scene; middle-aged ball-cap wearing tourists with the latest camera gear. The industry responded by placing slippers and bath-robes in hotel rooms. A few Japanese television channels were thrown in for good measure. All that for roughly 17 million overseas visits.

But that was the 1980’s, when all but a few select Chinese were allowed to travel overseas. By 2003 however, the number of Chinese tourists had matched that of the Japanese influx. In fact, the past 5 years have seen tremendous growth in the amount of tourists from China, increasing steadily at 37 or 38 percent a year.

In 1995, only 4.5 million Chinese travelled abroad. By 2005, that figure has increased to 31 million. And if growth continues, forecasts say that at least 50 million will travel overseas in 2010, 100 million by 2020. To put this in perspective, in 2004, 61.7 million Americans travelled abroad.

What all these numbers mean to me is that here is a huge market; a growing one at that. The travel industry will have to meet their needs just as they did the Japanese in the 1980’s. I’m thinking, how does TripTie fit in?

[Link NYTimes]
Photo from Superciliousness