Mainland tourists carry shopping bags as they walk through Hong Kong's shopping district Causeway Bay. [Photo/Agencies]

In 2014, for the first time, the number of Chinese mainland tourists visiting destinations overseas exceeded 100 million. This was a milestone in the development of the country's tourism in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), and the number of overseas tourists has continued to grow since then and is expected to do so in the next five-year plan.

There are many reasons for a boom in overseas travel, but higher incomes are the primary cause. The tourism market has multiple levels, with overseas travel at the top; only with enough money in hand will people travel overseas in their leisure time. This is particularly true for long-distance travel, in the case of Chinese tourists to destinations in Europe or the United States, which costs so much more than regional travel. Chinese GDP per capita was just $4,628 in 2010, but increased to about $7,591 in 2014.

This can easily be seen from the experiences of Japan and the Republic of Korea. The two countries experienced booming overseas tourism in the 1970s and the 1990s, which roughly matches the decades of their big rises in economic prosperity. Therefore it will be a normal phenomenon in the coming years for more Chinese to travel abroad.

Better educational backgrounds are also an indispensable driver of the growing trend for overseas travel. The longing to see faraway places belongs only to those with certain levels of education, especially those with a mastery of a foreign language. For those who have little understanding or awareness of the outside world, seeing the famous sights overseas are unlikely to feature on their bucket lists.