The Forces Shaping China's Outbound Tourism 推动中国出境旅游的力量

The study of outbound tourism in China has been dominated by the consumer approach, and individual travelers have been the focus of research. This article adopts an alternative approach to studying outbound tourism in China by analyzing the macro‐environment. It is found that socio‐economic and political factors play important parts in shaping the outbound international tourist flows from China. The market‐driven economy and state control are two key dialectic forces in the macro‐environment in China promoting and checking the outbound international tourist flows. The analysis shows that while the state lets market forces exert its influence, it will maintain the ultimate control and will not hesitate to intervene the market to ”correct„ the development path of outbound tourism because of its political significance. 中国出境旅游研究一直是以消费者研究方法为主导，以旅游者为研究重心的。本文尝试采用另一种研究方法，即通过分析宏观环境来研究中国出境旅游。本文发现社会经济和政治因素对中国出境国际旅客流量的形成有重大的影响。市场导向经济和国家管制能够促进和抑制出境国际旅客的流量，是中国宏观环境中两股关键而又对立的力量。本文分析表明，中国虽然没有对市场力量的影响进行干预，但基于出境旅游的政治重要性，仍然会维持终极控制，并会毫不犹豫地干预市场，以纠正出境旅游的发展道路。