ABSTRACT
China’s rich tourism resources are due to its vast and diverse territory, its civilization of over 5,000 years, and its ethnic diversity with fifty-six nationalities. These combine to total over 4,600 identified scenic spots and places of historical interest, with many more that have not been cataloged (Yang, 1989; Jeffrey and Xie, 1995). The interest that China holds for international tourists and the potential of China’s international tourism are tremendous. In 2000, China received 83.48 million international visitors compared to 57.59 million in 1997 (Han, 2001; CNTA, 1998; note that these numbers include day excursionists). The majority of international visitors (about 78 percent) are compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese (who reside in a foreign country but hold Chinese passports). Foreign visitors (who entered China with foreign passports) exceeded 10 million for the first time in history in 2000 and showed an impressive increase of 2.6 million or 35 percent from 1997 (Han, 2001). For the purposes of this chapter, short-haul foreign visitors are those from either an Asian country or a country that shares a border with China such as Russia, while long-haul foreign visitors are from all other areas in the world: Europe, America, Oceania, and Africa. Although smallest in number of visitors (3 million in 1997), longhaul visitors tend to spend more time and money in China than the short-haul visitors, are the group that has the greatest potential to grow, and are a major marketing segment for China’s National Tourism Administration (CNTA).
