The historical evolution of China's tourism development policies (1949–2013) – A quantitative research approach

Abstract

Starting from the multi-dimensional analysis of the 379 tourism policy documents issued by Central Government and related departments and ministries from 1949 to 2013, this article analyzes the evolution of China's tourism development policies since the founding of China using a perspective. The research results show that (1) Tourism policy in China has evolved from being based on the administrative allocation of resources to a market-based allocation of resources constrained by administrative powers. (2) The targets for tourism policy have always been developed with the strategic objectives of national economic and social development in mind. These can be divided into four stages: servicing foreign affairs, developing the business economy, providing a new growth point in the economy, and becoming a national strategic pillar industry. (3) Tourism policy is mainly used for micro-supervision. Tourism policy formulation lacks the ability to macro-control the factors of production such as capital, land, technology and talent. (4) Increasing numbers of government departments are becoming involved in formulating tourism policy, but policy efforts have become more stable. Recent studies suggest that the effective operation of the tourism economy is highly dependent on the institutional arrangements within the wider social economic system. Thus, when the Tourism Law was enacted, the development of the Chinese tourism industry entered a new stage. In this new stage, technological advances, market demand, and the competition and cooperative relationships among companies will jointly lead innovation in the tourism industry. Innovation, such as new products and new business models will in turn be the base for tourism industry development. Furthermore, industrial macroeconomic regulation and public service will become the basic elements of government tourism management under the new law.