The Chinese reportedly made over 100 million overseas trips last year spending a record $208 billion. Chinese investors now are looking to tap into this growth by buying up hotels and leisure properties hoping that that like the Japanese before, their tourists will choose to dine and play at Chinese-owned properties, reports The Australian.

International tourist arrivals rose by 4.7 per cent to 1.14 billion in 2014, according to the Madrid-based World Tourism Organisation. "Over the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity," secretary general of the UN body, Taleb Rifai, said in a statement.

Outbound Chinese tourism is one of the key drivers of global tourism with Chinese tourists spending a record $US164.8 billion ($AUD 208 billion), according to figures reported by The Australian.

Some 709,000 Chinese tourists to Australia spent about $5.3 billion in Australia last year. Tourism Australia says recent forecasts indicate the spend could rise to $13 billion annually by 2020. Some tourist spots like Sovereign Hill in Victoria report that 80% of their visitors are from China.

Chasing the Chinese tourism dollar are some of China’s biggest investors who have been snapping up brands, property and other assets across the globe to serve as a magnet for China’s booming outbound tourist market, reports The Australian.

“The Australian property market is well known for its stable growth and transparency. It is also the reason why Australia attracts so much attention from Asian investors including from China,” noted Guo Guangchang the chariman of Fosun International Limited in a press release.  Fosun is the largest private-owned conglomerate in China.

Gary Bowerman, author of the new book The New Chinese Traveller, says that Chinese investors see huge opportunities both in buying and adapting existing tourism and hospitality concepts and creating new ones for domestic travellers, and then expanding those portfolios overseas.

“Like Japanese investors before them, these Chinese developers want the ever-growing legion of Chinese tourists to shop, dine and play at their own properties around the world, including Australia,” notes The Australian.