Outbound tourism sees upgrade trend as tastes diversify

China's outbound tourism market is undergoing a consumption upgrade, with Chinese tourists choosing smaller, less well-known sightseeing destinations for their vacations, according to a new report released by global payment giant Mastercard and online travel service provider Ctrip.

"We could see the tourism consumption upgrade trend clearly during our study of various data points," said Peng Liang, chief researcher of the joint tourism big data lab of China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.

During the first nine months of 2018, the top five Japanese destinations in terms of growth in Chinese tourists' spending on travel products were Aomori, Kamakura, Niseko, Takayama and Toyama, according to the report.