China's tourism industry is only just getting going

New York

IF you want to gauge how Chinese consumers are reshaping the world, look at how many of them are leaving China.

For vacation, that is. Outbound Chinese tourism has enjoyed explosive growth over the past decade and there's plenty more where that came from: only 5 per cent of the Middle Kingdom's citizens hold a passport, compared with 40 per cent in the US. That's a lot of ground to make up and suggests this boom has some staying power.

Investors would do well to focus on the beneficiaries, and not just the Chinese companies among them. I'm talking about Marriott International, Ctrip.com International and the PowerShares Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment exchange-traded fund. While much public discourse in the US focuses o…