The official opening of the EU-China Tourism Year takes places in Venice on 19 January 2018.

The number of nights spent in the EU by tourists from China more than tripled over the last ten years, to reach nearly 25 million nights in 2016. Growth of tourism from China has risen more than that from other major economies such as the USA, Russia or Brazil. Tourists from China account for almost 6% of the total number of nights spent in the EU by non-EU nationals.

Tourists from China mainly stay in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Germany

More than 7 out of 10 overnights of residents from China in the EU were spent in four countries: the United Kingdom (31%), Italy (18%), France (13%) and Germany (10%).

China 8th in the top 10 of non-EU destinations for trips of the EU residents

In 2016, 3% of all trips made by EU residents to countries outside the EU were to China. 2.1 million trips were made to China by EU tourists, amounting to 32.5 million nights. EU tourists spent around 5.1 billion euro on those trips. Tourism to China is equivalent to 4% of all EU nights EU tourists spend outside of the EU.

Apart from China, other countries among top ten world destinations for EU tourists include the United States (14%), Turkey (10%), Switzerland (9%), Norway (6%), Russia (6%), Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Egypt (all 3%).

Within the Asian market, China is the third most popular destination for EU tourists (13.7%) behind Thailand (14.3%) and the United Arab Emirates (13.9%).