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Asian travellers, particularly from Japan and China, are to challenge German tourists' standing as the world's most prolific globe trotters.

According to a survey by MINTEL, Japan and China will generate approximately four times as many outbound trips in 2020 as they did in 2005, putting them in positions two and three behind Germany.

In 2003 Germans overtook Americans as the world's most traveled nation. Since then Americans have fallen into third place behind Britons as a weakening dollar and fear of terrorism dented the tourism industry. However, issues such as terrorism are much less of a concern for Japanese or Chinese travelers, so are unlikely to affect them significantly.

"Whilst national economies and security fears will cause some would-be travelers to stay at home, or sway their choice of destination, for a considerable proportion, a holiday or a business trip abroad has become part of day-to-day life and is no longer regarded as a luxury," MINTEL's Richard Cope said.

Mr Cope said that both Japan and China would be driven by growth in their business and leisure markets.

"With 10 years of little or no growth, the Japanese economy is picking up -- that means more business trips and more tourism," he told Reuters.

Overall, the number of trips taken abroad from the world's top 15 traveling nations will double by 2020 to 836.6 million from 433.3 million, the survey predicted.

According to MINTEL, the other top traveling nations are: France, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, Belgium, Hong Kong and Australia.

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