China’s Outbound Tourism - Emerging Trends and Features in the Second Decade of the 21st Century

As we are entering the second decade of the twenty-first century, the market demand for China’s outbound tourism continues to grow rapidly and China’s outbound tourism has been experiencing major changes in travel patterns. Through face-to-face interviews with China’s leading outbound tour operators across the country, this study examined the current status of China’s outbound tourism, emerging features of outbound tour products, market demand of China’s outbound tourists and the current trends of popular travel styles. Findings of this article are informative to both the tourism and leisure researchers and the industry professionals in better understanding the opportunities and challenges in China’s outbound tourism market. Implications and recommendations are discussed