ABSTRACT
Situated in East Asia and on the western coast of the Pacific Ocean, China is the most populous country in the world with a population of 1.3 billion and the third largest state covering a total land area of 9.6 million square kilometres (see Map 21.1). Modern tourism in China started in 1929, when the first travel agency was set up in Shanghai. In the same year, China’s first airline, China Aviation Corporation started operation (Oum and Yu 2000). However, the development of aviation and tourism was very slow over the next few decades due to wars and political unrest. In 1980, China only received less than 6 million inbound tourists (CNTA 2000) and its aviation sector just ranked 33rd in the world in terms of revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) performed (ICAO 1981). However, since then China has been developing so rapidly that in 2005, inbound tourists to China reached 47 million, making China the fourth largest destination in the world in terms of international tourist arrivals (UNWTO 2007). As for the aviation industry, China emerged as the second largest market only behind the United States measured by either RPK or revenue tonne kilometres (RTK) performed (CAAC 2007). Within such a short period, how has China gone from a situation where its aviation and tourism industries were insignificant to one today where it ranks among the top nations? This case study attempts to answer this question and the remainder of this Chapter is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews historical development and Section 3 examines current trends. Section 4 discusses major policy issues followed by Section 5 outlining the way forward.
