China Travel Awards 2025

China's Travel Industry: The World's Most Powerful Tourism Market

China is the world's largest tourism market by virtually every measure. Its domestic tourism economy exceeds $700 billion annually — larger than the entire GDP of many major countries. With 145 million outbound tourists generating over $250 billion in international travel spending before the pandemic, Chinese tourists are the world's highest-spending outbound travel market, reshaping global hospitality infrastructure from Paris and London to Dubai and Tokyo to meet Chinese visitor preferences.

Beijing's luxury hotel market has matured into one of Asia's most competitive, with the Park Hyatt Beijing, Rosewood Beijing, The Peninsula Beijing, and St. Regis Beijing competing for the top position in China's imperial capital. The Forbidden City complex, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace create an extraordinary cultural backdrop for what is genuinely one of Asia's most remarkable city hotel destinations. The Great Wall — one of humanity's most ambitious engineering achievements — attracts hotel development in its surrounding mountains, with luxury properties positioned to provide the private, uncrowded wall access that becomes increasingly rare as mass tourism pressure intensifies.

Shanghai's Bund represents one of the world's most dramatic urban hotel settings — Art Deco masterpieces converted to luxury hotels facing Pudong's futuristic financial district skyline across the Huangpu River, with Waldorf Astoria, Fairmont Peace Hotel, and the Bulgari Hotel among the landmark properties competing for the title of Shanghai's finest. Beyond these iconic gateway cities, China's domestic luxury tourism market has created extraordinary resort development in Sanya on Hainan Island (a nascent Maldives for Chinese luxury travellers), the Li Jiang rice terrace landscapes of Yunnan, the karst mountain scenery of Guilin, and the Tibetan plateau's high-altitude spiritual tourism circuit. China's aviation industry is the world's second largest and growing rapidly, making its airline award categories increasingly significant at the global level.