Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 11, 2023

 

“Tourism China”: Forty Years of Tourism Development and Contemporary Social Changes

(Abstract)

 

Sun Jiuxia, Li Fei and Wang Xueji

 

On the basis of comprehensively summarizing the history, characteristics and trends of China’s tourism development over the past forty years of reform and opening up, this paper takes Tourism China as a new research paradigm and breaks through the binary thinking of “tourism” and “society” as two independent parallel fields. This provides a more holistic, integrated, and historical depiction of the complex landscape of China’s tourism development and social changes. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the social effect of the “golden decade” of China’s tourism development has far exceeded its economic and industrial attributes. Internally, tourism is an important force reflecting the people’s subjectivity, creating a harmonious homeland, and shaping a better life. Tourism is social life, and in the context of China’s multiregional, multiethnic, and multicultural history and reality, its building of an interactive and communicative tourism “integration space” helps to strengthen the sense of community for the Chinese nation. Externally, telling China’s story well through inbound tourism, outbound tourism and tourism diplomacy will help promote mutual learning among civilizations and enhance cultural self-confidence in global interactions. Tourism has become an important stage for promoting Chinese modernization and dialogue with the world.