(Yicai Global) May 30 -- China clung to its top position for the fourth consecutive year while Japan issued a record number of visas to Chinese travelers last year, amid an increasing inflow of visitors to the world's fastest-growing tourism destination.

The number of visas Japan granted to Chinese citizens grew 6.6 percent last year to 4.5 million travel permits, which made up 77 percent of all visas, reported the island nation's foreign ministry. 

The number of overseas visitors to Japan has more than tripled since 2010 with some 28.7 million travelers last year, and thus Japan has become the decade's fastest growing tourism destination, according to data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization. With the surge, Japan was the world's 12th most visited country.

Passport-wise, most of those travelers were Chinese. The Asian country's citizens visited Japan about 7.4 million times last year, making up to 26 percent of all tourists.

China became the world's biggest source country for outbound tourism last year with 130 million travelers, and according to UNWTO, they also spent the most money while traveling.

Japan started offering personal tourist visas to the Chinese in 2009, after which the number of this type of travel documents surpassed group visas for the first time, reported Japanese Kyodo News Agency.

Editor: Emmi Laine