Smart phones payments now outpace credit cards for travel expenses with some 36 percent of travel transactions were settled via eWallets like WeChat or Paypal, credit cards accounted for 22 percent, debit cards 12 percent, and bank transfers 11 percent, said Dr Jin Zhun, Secretary General of the Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Use of mobile payments and eWallets will likely grow, Zhun a, due to demand in Asia and the U.S.

By 2022, he predicted that eWallet will account for 47 percent of global tourism payments, while credit cards could slip to 17 percent, debit cards 11 percent, and bank transfers to 11 percent.

Zhun’s study also found that Europe remains the world’s leading tourist destination, though its percentage of the world’s in-bound tourism revenue continues to decline.

“That said, europe is still a hot destination for inbound tourism,” Zhun said. “Europe accounts for 51.3 percent of the world’s inbound tourism.”

Global tourism arrivals reached 10.82 billion people in 2018, an increase of 5.1 percent over 2017. Tourists spent 3.76 trillion dollars on their travels, Zhun explained.

G7 countries accounted for 70% of global tourism revenue, and 70% of global tourist arrivals, he said.

The Group of Seven (G7) consist of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This tourist spending, as well as strong growth from Chinese tourists, “is the biggest contribution to the Asia-Pacific regional GDP,” Zhun said.

This is strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted. Michael Scaturro is reporting exclusively for 4Hoteliers.com at ITB Berlin 2019 - www.4Hoteliers.com/itb.

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