China's international tourism development: present and future

China's international tourism development: present

and future

Guangrui Zhang

Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic

University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Ray Pine

Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic

University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Hanqin Qiu Zhang

Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic

University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Strictly speaking, China's international

tourism industry is the outcome of the

implementation of economic reform and

openness to the outside world. Along with the

changes in Chinese political and economic

systems, it has grown out of nothing, and

experienced progress from small to large,

from rapid growth to steady development,

heading toward its maturity. This industry is

playing an increasingly significant role in

the country's national economy.

Main stages of development

Tourism as a recognized industry in the world

is not at all old itself, and in China is very

young. Leisure travel in China may date back

thousands of years. Emperors, scholars, and

monks were frequent travelers in ancient

times, due to their positions of power,

intellectual interests, or free time. But it was

not an activity of the ordinary masses, or by

any means an industry. Back in the 1920s and

1930s, the travel business once existed in

China, but was small in size and dominated by

the wealthy or adventurous foreigners, both

as participants and business operators.

Thomas Cook and Sons, among other world

renowned travel companies, opened offices

first in Shanghai, then in Beijing, providing

services for the foreign and rich Chinese

people. The first Chinese travel agency ±

China Travel Service ± was established in 1923

by Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank in

Shanghai. Unfortunately, the business was

short-lived, and the prolonged and ruthless

wars from the late 1930s through to the 1940s,

namely, the eight-year war against Japan,

followed by the four-year civil war between

the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the

Kuomintang (KMT), put an end to all pleasure

travel in the country.

China's tourism business since 1949 has

undergone, in general, the following four

major stages of development:

1949-1966: tourism as a part of foreign

affairs of the state

From 1949 to 1966, tourism was only a form of

special political activity. Travel services

(similar to tour operators or travel agents)

were set up right after the new government

formed, but only provided services for

visiting overseas Chinese nationals and for

foreigners with special permission to visit

the country. Hence for a long time, tourism

in China was essentially a ``diplomatic

activity'' or ``people-to-people diplomacy'',

serving the state political goals rather than

economic ones. Domestic tourism, being

against the doctrine of ``Communism'',

hardly existed, and outbound travel was

limited almost exclusively to diplomats and

government officials at public expense.

1966-1978: standstill

The so-called Great Cultural Revolution

started from early 1966 and lasted for a

decade through to 1976 and forced the infant

travel business to be almost entirely

suspended. During this period, China shut

her doors and was busy with internal

political struggles; hardly any overseas

tourists in the proper sense were allowed to

visit the country. In 1968, China

International Travel Service, the only travel

agency to handle the business of

international travel, then received only 303

foreign visitors to the country (Sun, 1992).

Although some lucky selected foreigners

were permitted to visit China in the early

1970s, until 1978 tourism in China remained

an insignificant economic activity.

1978-1985: tourism as an important

economic activity

1978 was a year of great significance for

China. In that year, an epoch-making

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[ 282 ]

International Journal of

Contemporary Hospitality

Management

12/5 [2000] 282±290

# MCB University Press

[ISSN 0959-6119]

Keywords

Tourism, China

Abstract

International tourism as an

industry is the outcome of China's

economic reform and open policy

to the outside world initiated in

the late 1970s, and it has become

one of the important foreign

exchange earners, playing an

increasingly significant role in the

country's national economy. The

paper explains the main stages of

its development and identifies the

important changes in the past two

decades. It analyzes the

opportunities and challenges with

which China's international

tourism is confronted, and further

suggests the choices of policies

and strategies China should

undertake for its international

tourism development in the new

millennium and on the threshold of

joining the World Trade

Organization.

Guangrui Zhang is currently

visiting the Department of

Hotel and Tourism

Management at The Hong

Kong Polytechnic University

as a senior research fellow. He is the Head of the Tourism

Research Centre, Chinese

Academy of Social Sciences

(Rm 401 Longbo Office

Bldg, 3 Nanlishilu Rd, Beijing 100037. E-mail:

[email protected])