Where the Billionaires Are—Mostly from Our Top Source Markets, with China No. 1

The Hurun Global Rich List 2016 ranked a total of 2,188 billionaires from 68 countries—up 99 from last year, in another record-breaking year for the world’s billionaires. While groupies might just look at the list to see who’s in first place, etc. the tour and travel industry should take note of the implications of where they’re from (the top 20 nations in terms of number of billionaires is comprised mostly of key source markets for inbound travel to the U.S.) and how this correlates to potential travel spend in the future. For instance:

—China is Number 1. The number of Chinese billionaires (568) surpassed the number of USA billionaires (535) for the first time.

—The combined net worth of the Chinese billionaires is $1.4 trillion, similar to the GDP of Australia.

—Led by Beijing, 5 Chinese cities make the top 10 cities for super wealth creators.

—Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hangzhou are home to 100, 64, 50, 46 and 32 billionaires respectively. China is the number 1 in the world in terms of generating self-made billionaires akin to “rags to riches.”

—Wang Jianlin, 61, of Wanda was the richest Chinese with $26billion, just ahead of Li Ka-shing, 87.  Jack Ma, 51, of Alibaba was fourth with $21billion.

—Chinese stock exchanges attracted more billionaires than U.S exchanges—for the fourth year running.

Leading Countries for Billionaires

Leading Cities for Billionaires