The United Nations World Tourism Organization has confirmed that 2012 saw China become the top tourist source market in the world.

Last year, Chinese expenditure on travel abroad climbed to US$102 billion, culminating a period in which it has been the most rapidly growing source market for tourism in the world.

Since the turn of the century, there has been over an eightfold increase in the number of overseas trips made by Chinese travelers, from 10 million who went to other countries in 2000 to 83 million who traveled abroad in 2012.

This huge rise, made possible by increased disposable income for Chinese people, has also seen them spending more money on their foreign trips, with the US$102 billion they spent in 2012 up 40 percent from the previous year.

At the start of the year, Taleb Rifai, the organization's general secretary, had told reporters in Mardrid: "The Chinese economy is opening up, it is growing and the rise of the middle class in China is a very important phenomenon, it is probably one of the main reasons behind this absolutely impressive growth in the outbound figures and data."

He also praised what China had to offer as a tourist destination.

"We have almost 60 million people visiting China. China is the third visited destination in the world today and all of this makes China very special to us," he added.

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