- Hong Kong, Norway, Finland, Singapore and Switzerland are all in the top five with the most foreign travel
- Hong Kong tops the chart with the average Hongkongese making 4.3 outbound trips a year
- Scandinavia has a high level of international travel with Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway having a high number of trips abroad
- Despite having the largest domestic tourism market in the world, international travel in the US is very limited with 1 out of 5 Americans going abroad in 2013
Hong Kong the leader for trips abroad
The average Hongkongese takes 4.3 outbound trips a year, with 74% of these trips going to China. On the contrast, domestic travel in Hong Kong is relatively non-existent.
According to Arnie van Groesen, a tourism analyst at Timetric, Scandies may be taking a lot of outbound trips due to money, weather and holiday traditions.
He said, “Cost of living is relatively expensive in Scandinavian countries, meaning that if they go abroad they’ll often get more value for money. The weather conditions make them attracted to less severe conditions in the southern part of the world, such as Spanish beaches.”
Norwegians make on average 2 international trips per year, the highest amount of outbound trips for Europe.
“Martin Yan: People who don’t travel cannot have a global view, all they see is what’s in front of them. Those people cannot accept new things because all they know is where they live.” [Tweet this]
Countries with less international travel
The majority of the Chinese population do not travel internationally often. If they do, these are people who travel abroad frequently.
The same is the case for the US, who average 0.2 trips abroad a year. The average American takes 6.7 trips a year however most of these trips are domestic. Less than half of Americans own a passport. According to van Groesen from Timetric, “going abroad is costly and the US is such a vast country it doesn’t lack of things to see and do.”
It is important to mention that travel culture and time spent abroad are also factors here. Americans and other excluded countries such as Australia like to take longer and fewer trips abroad. Americans are also offered fewer holiday days. They also don’t have any minimum rights of paid holidays, where in Europe employers are entitled an average minimum of 22 days paid holidays in 2013 (excluding public holidays).
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