About 107 million Chinese traveled overseas in 2014, up nearly 20 percent from the previous year, new official data showed on Friday.

China was the top source for overseas travelers for the second year running, according to the report by the China Tourism Academy, an institute under the China National Tourism Administration.

Chinese are also spending more. About 88 percent of the tourists spent most of their money on shopping while they were abroad.

They spent 164.8 billion U.S. dollars overseas last year, about four times the 40.99 billion yuan they spent in 2008.

The increase in outbound tourists could be attributed to more relaxed visa policies, said Dai Bin, head of the academy.

The report forecast that the number of Chinese outbound tourists will grow more than 16 percent this year.

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