China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) recently announced that 8,953,200 Mainlanders had travelled abroad via the assistance of travel agencies in the first quarter of the year. The 10 countries or regions most favoured were Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and France. Macau ranked 6^th on the list, attracting 716,300 Mainlanders in the first three months of 2015 or eight per cent of the overall outbound visitors from Mainland China in the period.

In another ranking, according to the latest report by China UnionPay, China is the world's second largest exporter of tourism although short-haul destinations are preferred. The top two destinations are Hong Kong and Macau, accumulating 42.94 per cent and 28.71 per cent, respectively, while Asia generally is overwhelmingly the destination of choice, followed by Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania.

In addition, the Hurun Report and International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) Asia have released The Chinese Luxury Traveller 2015, revealing that Sanya - the capital of Hainan and the 'Hawaii of China' - is the most popular destination for five consecutive years. Tibet and Hong Kong rank second and third, while Macau has dropped to seventh place. The international tourism consumption of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan visitors has ranked first in the world for five consecutive years, putting the total consumption of Greater China at an overall 35 per cent, far ahead of second-ranking Russia at 13 per cent.