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By Tang Guhan

Chinese tourists spent 258 billion USD on international travelling in 2017, accounting for one-fifth of the world's total tourism spending last year, according to the World Tourism Organization's (UNWTO) latest collection of Tourism Highlights.

This figure also shows that China maintains the top spot as a country that spent the most on outbound travelling in 2017.

The report says the international tourist arrivals worldwide reached a total of 1.323 billion in 2017, up by 7 percent year-on-year, the largest growth since 2010.

France and Spain ranked first and second respectively as the most visited destinations regarding international arrivals. The US and China come afterwards.

While Europe and Africa's tourist arrivals surged by 8 percent and 9 percent respectively, the US comes at the first place in terms of tourism income with an amount of USD 210.7 billion, far exceeding following Spain's USD 68 billion.

The report says that the improved performance in tourism is due to the sustained travel demand for destinations across all regions, including those that have suffered from security challenges recently.

Almost all markets have seen a growing outbound demand, including rebounds from emerging markets like Brazil and the Russian Federation, which both benefited developed and emerging countries.

"Growth in arrivals was echoed by a strong increase in exports generated by tourism, which reached USD1.6 trillion in 2017, making tourism the world's third-largest export sector," said the report.

UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability.