Manuel Butler Halter, executive director of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), explained that Chinese tourists are among the best prepared in the world in terms of education and the use of modern technology.

"They don't have barriers such as the language problem that their parents had... They are very well-educated tourists," he said.

"They use the most modern payment means, such as mobile phones. They are radically different from the tourists that Europeans could have in mind if they don't know them well," Halter said.

"We have changed from a 'gregarious' tourism, which saw people travel with a package and a tour operator, towards individual tourism which looks for experiences where spending habits have changed and where they don't travel from country to country, but where they get to know and enjoy local culture."