Tourism Research In China

This book provides critical in-depth reviews on key themes and issues in tourism research in China. These themes include: Chinese scholars’ epistemological views of tourism, rural tourism development, community participation in tourism, tourist market and behaviour, tourist attraction management and tour guiding and interpretation in China. While Chinese scholars are often able to access key research in both English and Chinese, the majority of researchers from outside China without knowledge of the Chinese language are unable to read original research from China. This book seeks to redress this knowledge imbalance and bring key Chinese tourism research to the international tourism academic community. This book will be a valuable reference for tourism researchers, postgraduate students and industry professionals.

Examine China's impact on the world tourism market! Tourism in China is a comprehensive study of tourism and the travel industry in China--past, present, and future. Since joining many of its Asia-Pacific neighbors in identifying tourism as a vehicle for socioeconomic growth and poverty alleviation, China has become the leader in the Asian travel industry, surpassing all forecasts with high and constant growth in international and domestic tourism activity. In fact, the World Trade Organization predicts that by 2020, China will become the world's leading tourism destination, receiving 145 million visitors. This timely book examines the diverse opportunities and challenges the country's tourism industry faces in meeting those projections. A unique, interdisciplinary guide that appeals to practitioners and academics, Tourism in China has been called “probably the most in-depth analysis of China's tourism industry” by the World Trade Organization's Dr. Harsh Varma. The book presents a collection of articles--scholarly in nature, comprehensive in scope--that serves as a significant (and much-needed) reference on Chinese tourism, though not including minority or border tourism, or the Hong Kong or Taiwan markets. The industry's historical development, its impact on the Chinese economy and ecology, and its current and future markets are examined extensively. Tourism in China also examines: the impressions of Western travelers in China during the 19th century the tourism boom and its development since 1978 the development of ecotourism in China's nature reserves the effect of the tourism boom on the hotel industry the development of theme parks in China. With two-thirds of China's provincial governments committed to making tourism one of their pillar industries, it is essential that tourism professionals, academics, and students around the world have a thorough understanding of this leader in current and future world travel. Tourism in China provides a detailed look at how the country’s tourism industry was built and how it will continue to expand. Helpful tables and figures, as well as a glossary of relevant terms, make the information easy to access and understand.

Covering a wide range of current issues, this comprehensive Handbook explores the links between tourism as a dynamic tertiary industry and China as the world’s most influential tourism market and destination.

This edited volume explores various issues in family tourism studies and complements the dramatic development of this market segment in China. The book concentrates on family and children tourism, and through its chapters, hopes to enrich the landscape of family tourism in academia.

China has witnessed a dramatic development of tourism in urban context in the past thirty years, especially with its success in hosting the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and the Shanghai World Exposition in 2010. Urban areas as tourism destination are receiving increasingly more popularity than traditional destinations such as national parks, natural reserves, and historical relics. Deriving largely from a special issue on "Urban Tourism Development and City Destination Marketing" (Journal of China Tourism Research), Urban Tourism in China presents the readers with a collection of nine independent research reports examining issues such as consumer behaviour in urban destinations, the social impact of tourism, destination image, leisure, regional collaboration, and heritage tourism in ancient towns. The investigations covered urban areas of different scales and diversified nature from major metropolises such as Beijing, and Guangzhou, to ancient towns like Lijiang and Pingyao. Readers who have interests of tourism research, business development, and in-depth understanding of urban life in China may find the book informative and interesting. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research.

Deriving from a special issue on "China Watching" (Journal of China Tourism Research), this book presents the readers with a collection of seven independent research reports that adopt cross-cultural communication and cultural studies approaches to China tourism. Topics covered include the authenticity in cultural diffusion, the articulation of China through tourism, cross-cultural comparison of vacation consumption interpretation, the Chinese gaze of Europe, influence of globalization and localization on the development of tourism, behavioral implications of Chinese outbound tourism, and citing behaviors of Chinese tourism researchers from foreign language sources. The book will be of great interest to academic researchers, graduate students, policy makers, and destination managers who are interested in China tourism. The varied aspects covered, together with the engaging writing style, makes the text a pleasure to read. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research.

Contemporary Perspectives on China Tourism is an innovative and engaging collection which presents unique approaches and critical insights into the policy, development and management practices of tourism and hospitality in modern China. This volume consists of nine independent research reports overarching the consequences of tourism from economic, sociocultural, community, and humanistic perspectives. The book addresses generic issues such as tourism demand, mega events, leisure, tourist experience, cultural representation, community development, and quality of life through tourism, as well as strategies and techniques specific to the tourism and hospitality industries. Contemporary Perspectives on China Tourism draws on methodological traditions of anthropology, business, communication and media studies, geography, linguistics and literature, sociology, and critical tourism studies. Seven of the nine chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue on "Methodological Innovations in China Tourism Research" of the Journal of China Tourism Research.

This book offers an in-depth understanding of tourism development and destination planning in China's transitional economy. It is a unique collaboration between editors and contributors to present issues in current Chinese tourism research to Western colleagues. The influences informing the book range from pragmatic concerns about destination planning in China, to senses of injustice about how that planning generates unequal distributions of revenue via concerns about needs for new conceptual approaches. The book also examines the changing nature of Chinese society and its political system, and commentary on the changing role of the Chinese State in tourism planning. It will be a valuable resource for postgraduate students and tourism researchers as well as for tourism industry professionals who want to understand China as a domestic, outbound and inbound tourism market.