Tourists seeking premium experiences

Travelers' evolving tastes underline value tourism, consumption and cultures

For the 148 million travelers from the Chinese mainland who visited overseas destinations last year, and spent $120 billion in all, tourism is no longer just for shopping but an opportunity to mature, evolve and add value to life through richer experiences, said industry experts.

This tectonic shift in the outlook of Chinese tourists is causing winds of change to sweep domestic tourism as well as global travel, and domestic consumption (which is now identified as an economic driver).