Cash In on China’s Tourism Boom

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Tony Sagami for Uncommon Wisdom Daily.

If you’re thinking about taking a trip to China, you’re not alone. Over the past decade or so, the number of visitors to China has exploded, from about 27 million in 1999 to more than 55 million in 2010. It’s already the world’s third-biggest tourist destination, behind only France and the United States. And it’s set to reach the top spot by 2020.

I’m not surprised — China is one of the most fascinating places on the planet, and the Chinese people are warm, friendly and fun. But it’s not just outside tourists coming into China; the Chinese citizens themselves are traveling around the country in droves.

As a result of the boom, the Chinese tourism industry is taking off, and there are several ways to profit from that trend.

For example, the hotel opportunity in China is huge. There is currently just half a hotel room per 1,000 people in China, compared with 2-and-a-half rooms per person in the United States.

And there’s one American hotel chain jumping into the market head-first to fill that gap: Marriott. The company has committed to opening at least one new hotel in China every month for the next three years.

But if you want a purer Chinese hotel play, you can consider large domestic chains such as Home Inns & Hotels Management, China Lodging Group and 7 Day Group.

In addition to hotels, there are other ways to play the China travel boom. You could consider airlines like China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Like the hotel stocks I mentioned, these companies both trade on U.S. stock exchanges.

Finally, I want to mention Ctrip.com. It’s the dominant player in China’s online travel space, and it’s growing like a weed.

I feel very blessed that I get paid to travel China, uncovering great investment opportunities. And the rapidly expanding travel industry is certainly one of the very best ways to profit from the Chinese economic miracle.

I’m Tony Sagami for Uncommon Wisdom Daily. Thanks for watching.

Tony Sagami is the editor of The Asian Century, a trading service designed to help investors profit from the seemingly unstoppable Asian consumption machine. He helps his subscribers tap into this potential through a variety of easy-to-execute strategies on global companies that trade on the U.S. exchanges that also do big business in Asia. For more information on The Asian Century, click here.

Tony is also the editor of International ETF Trader, where he shows members how to make money from trends taking place all over the world in areas like natural resources, gold, oil, commodities, tech, consumer goods and even in individual countries themselves.