Three times a week, when Qantas flight QF 192 takes off from Beijing to Sydney, there is more on board than merely people and cargo. The plane also carries the ambitions of Chinese business people looking for global growth, affluent PRC travelers connecting with their families and having fun, tired but invigorated international business people returning home, as well as a hold full of increasingly value-added Chinese exports. The flight captures some of the trends that are driving the international dimension of the phenomenal growth in China's travel and tourism sector.
The return flight QF 191 from Sydney to Beijing, and indeed flights inbound from all over the world, carry almost as many growth stories as there are passengers. By 2020, the UN World Tourism Organization predicts that China will be the leading inbound destination in the world with 130 million tourists, and the fourth largest outbound destination with 100 million tourists.
