China's middle class is the major group fueling long-distance travel abroad, said Yu Zhanfu, a principal at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.
More and more young people also tend to travel abroad because they speak English well.
"Now, domestic travel agencies are keen on selling products like global study tours," Yu told the Global Times on Monday.
The U.S. has some of the most famous top universities in the world, which draws many Chinese students to go for study tours or summer camps, experts said.
Closer to home
The number of Chinese visitors to the U.S. was quite small in past years, leading to the current high growth rate, said Yu, the expert with Roland Berger.
He noted that Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other countries in Asia still remain hot destinations for Chinese traveling abroad.
South Korea, Thailand, Japan as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan ranked as the top five outbound tourism destinations for mainland visitors during 2016's Dragon Boat Festival holidays from June 9 to 11, according to information that China's leading online travel agency Ctrip sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.
The U.S. was the eighth most favored destination for Chinese travelers during the holidays, Ctrip data showed.
With summer vacation just around the corner, tourism in Europe will also see a gradual rebound, and the number of Chinese visitors is expected to increase by 40-50 percent during the New Year's Day holidays in January and Qingming Festival holidays in April, Ctrip said.
"Mainland outbound travelers still prefer short trips during the small holidays, and countries like Thailand and Japan also have lovely natural landscapes," Yu said, noting that these destinations also share a common cultural background with China.
With more and more Chinese visitors traveling outbound, there will be more differentiation in the market, according to Yu.
"As outbound visitors get more experienced, they will start considering long-distance travel to Europe, Australia and the U.S. in the future," he noted.
Cruises will also become increasingly popular in the future, and the consumer spending and the average travel time for each trip that Chinese travelers take will also increase in the coming years, experts said.
Improved manners
Public concern has also grown about some ill-mannered Chinese tourists at overseas tourist attractions.
On June 15, U.S. Yellowstone National Park fined a Chinese visitor $1,000 for leaving a boardwalk path in the park's Mammoth Hot Springs area.
A park service center said the man admitted to trying to collect water in a bottle from the hot springs, according to media reports.
Although the overall quality of Chinese outbound visitors is not low, "uncivilized behavior" does exist and the country has put a lot of focus on this issue, said Zhu, the analyst with Analysys International.
The China National Tourism Administration announced rules in April 2015 to establish a "blacklist" of offenders who demonstrate illegal or inappropriate behavior abroad.
Chinese travelers are expected to improve their manners and to respect local customs, such as keeping their voices down in public, Zhu noted.
According to a survey conducted by Ctrip, about 70 percent of online respondents and 80 percent of tour guides do not agree that "Chinese visitors behave worse than travelers from other countries," news portal china.com.cn reported on June 3.
Chinese who were born in the 1980s and 1990s now account for a large proportion of outbound visitors, and more than 70 percent of those people have received a junior college education or above, which might help enhance the overall quality of Chinese outbound tourists, experts said.
