China will overtake France as the world’s number one tourist destination by 2030, a new report from global research company Euromonitor International predicts. As well as receiving more visitors than any other country in the world, it will also have the largest number of outbound travellers, overtaking the US and Germany, with 260 million outbound tourist trips by 2030.

Speaking at World Travel Market in London this week, Wouter Geerts, consultant at Euromonitor and author of the report, said tourism was now one of the key pillars of the Chinese economy. According to his research, China will be largest inbound market by 2030, with many tourists coming from other Asian countries, including Hong Kong and Taiwan.