Foreign direct investment in the Chinese outbound tourism industry: the policies, participants and possibilities

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the regulatory policies surrounding foreign investments in the Chinese tourism industry. It describes the key regulatory agencies involved in the policy-making and looks at how foreign investors have adapted to these policies since the late 1990s. The paper describes how the VIE structure and the free trade zones were used to attract foreign investments into the Chinese travel industry. Moreover, the paper argues that the current joint venture structure available to foreign investors is problematic seen from a foreign travel investors perspective. The author uses a hermeneutical interpretation of the topic. In addition, the social science model of fragmented authoritarianism is used to describe how the mentioned regulatory agencies interact.