ABSTRACT
Tourism research in China did not exist until tourism development was encouraged by changes in the central government’s policies at the end of the 1970s. This was when the Chinese government began its epoch-making campaign of economic reform and opening to the outside world. China has experienced a dramatic growth in tourism development over the past twenty years and now ranks among the world’s top ten international destinations in terms of both international tourist arrivals and tourism revenue (WTO 2000; also see Chapter 2).
