AEC Feed

Chinese tourists continued to spend more than any other country’s outbound travellers last year, while more than doubling the spending by their US counterparts, according to data released this week by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (WTO).
Chinese tourists spent US$262 billion on foreign trips in 2016, a 12 per cent increase over the figure in 2015, while the number of outbound tourists rose 6 per cent to 135 million in 2016. Meanwhile, outbound travellers from the US, the second largest outbound market for tourism spending last year, spent US$122 billion abroad. Travellers from Germany, the United Kingdom and France trailed and made up the top five spenders.
The WTO said that China has been the largest outbound travel market since 2012 and that 2016 marked the 13th consecutive year that China saw double-digit growth on outbound tourism expenditure.
The growth of China’s outbound tourism benefited not only many short-haul destinations in Asia and the Pacific, most notably Japan, South Korea and Thailand, but long-haul destinations including the US and Europe. |– China Daily

Partners step up push on Singapore travel
Changi Airport Group, Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Tourism Board aim to take a joint partnership, aimed at promoting inbound travel, to new heights.
Under a renewed three-year partnership, the three parties will jointly invest S$33.75 million (Bt828.4 million) the highest ever amount to promote Singapore as an attractive travel destination.
The partnership’s joint marketing efforts will focus on promoting |Singapore as a stopover or twinning destination – where travellers visit Singapore and another destination during the same trip – to travellers globally. – The Straits Times

Duterte most influential leader, say Time readers 
Controversial Philippine President Rodridgo Duterte has been named world’s most influential leader in an annual Time magazine opinion poll. 
Duterte topped the annual list of the 100 most influential people, with 5 per cent of the total “yes” votes in the survey. The poll asked readers which personalities they thought should be included on this year’s Time 100 list. 
Trailing Duterte were Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who received 3 per cent each of the “yes” votes. Chinese leader Xi Jinping also made the list with a 2 per cent share.
The firebrand Davao mayor turned president gained global attention |following his electoral victory in May. 
The Duterte administration’s brutal war on drug has been called out by international rights groups and foreign governments due to human rights |violations and extrajudicial killings which now top 8,000, according to Reuters. The Time 100 list will be announced on April 20. The final selection will be made by Time editors. – The Philippine Inquirer