The World Tourism Organization says 128 million Chinese travelled both at home and abroad last year. That was up 10 percent from 2014. The travellers spent 292 billion dollars, a 25-percent year on year increase. The numbers were all higher than the readings for the U.S.

Meanwhile, China's international tourism revenues reached 114 billion dollars last year. That replaced Spain as being the second-highest amount in the world. The leader was the U.S. at 178 billion dollars. The world's total tourism income was about 1.4 trillion dollars in 2015, up 3.6 percent year on year from 2014.

Tourism currently accounts for 7 percent of global trade and 30 percent of services exports.