China to be world's most popular tourist spot: WTO

Agence France-Presse, Nicosia

China will become the world's most popular tourist destination by 2020, garnering 8.3 percent of the lucrative global holiday market, a World Tourism Organisation (WTO) official predicted Friday.

"The world's top 10 tourist receiving countries will see a major change with China becoming the leading destination by 2020. Hong Kong if treated as a separate entity will become the number five destination in the world," WTO deputy chief Dawid de Villiers told the one-day Cyprus International Tourism Conference in Nicosia.

The WTO forecast China would be followed by France, the United States and Spain as the most popular countries for tourists.

De Villiers also said Germans will remain the world's most traveled people over the next 20 years, followed by the Japanese and Americans.

"China enters fourth place with a forecast of generating 100 million outbound visitors by 2020," de Villiers said.

In 2000, the number of global tourists reached 699 million, an increase of 7.4 percent, garnering total receipts of US$475 billion, he added.

According to the WTO, only 7 percent of the world's population travels outside their country's borders.