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China has achieved the most impressive development in the tourism industry in the past two decades. Travel and tourism has become a strategic industry in China’s development toward a market economy. The Chinese outbound tourism market has become one of the acknowledged emerging markets all over the world. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), China now ranks fourth in terms of international tourist arrivals and fifth with respect to international tourism receipts in 2009. Most notably, the China outbound market is considered the most attractive and promising by many destination countries. As one of the largest generators of the outbound tourists, China generated 78.4 million outbound travelers in 2012, and the total expenditure on outbound tourism reached US$80.0 billion, the highest in the world (China Tourism Academy 2012). Tourists of outbound tourism in China have grown by more than 15 % in recent years (China Tourism Academy 2012).

The booming Chinese outbound tourism has attracted worldwide attention (Li et al. 2011). Because of the steady rise in income level and the improvement on salaried vacation system, China has had the biggest domestic tourism market in the world. The tourism industry has diversified from the earlier culture and nature tourism to other fields such as leisure vacation, technology, and agricultural ecology tourism. These new tourism fields have formed an important impetus to the growth of tourism. However, ideological, psychological, social, and cultural barriers to accepting and embracing visitors from China are still seen among hosting communities (Cai 2007). China is one of the most difficult countries for westerners to understand and adapt to (Herbig and Martin 1998). They have no precise information about Chinese consumers, not to mention the change in their consumption preference.

At the same time, a number of multinational corporations have been focusing their efforts on key external market trends that can lead to future growth opportunities. These multinational companies have identified as a driver of change the fact that “power is moving east,” specifically toward the growing Chinese consumers. Based on these changes, tourism and hospitality research is facing an unprecedented number of issues, opportunities, and challenges, many of which have global implications. The international conference on tourism and hospitality between China and Spain 2012, was held on November 29–December 1 in 2012 in Zhuhai, Canton in China. This conference was held by the school of tourism management of Sun Yat-sen University, China Tourism Education Association, faculty of tourism in University of Balearic Islands, and hotel management school of the Balearic Islands.

The conference had two major parts, academic and industrial. The academic part was for researchers in tourism and hospitality-related fields in China, Spain, and other parts of the world to exchange their research results directly. The industrial part was for the tourism and hospitality sectors to have a cooperation platform with their Chinese counterparts to provide business opportunities and direct contact. With these two parts, the conference provided a unique global forum for academics, thought leaders, and key industry practitioners from diverse backgrounds and interests to discuss and debate critical issues that would affect the future direction of tourism and hospitality research and practice.

Based on the conference proceedings, we decided to publish this book for the benefit of business owners, managers, and researchers in tourism and hospitality to better understand the Chinese market. At the same time, we hope this proceeding would provide some opportunities for knowledge exchange between Chinese and Western researchers as well as practitioners. In this book, we aim to discuss the development of hospitality under globalization by dividing the topics into four parts: the management and sustainable development of hotels, marketing and development of destination, tourism resource and tourism impact, and safety and education research in tourism field.

Part I concentrates on the management and sustainable development of hotels. With the development of tourism, hotels expand unconsciously. Certainly, hospitality management is becoming a hot topic. Xu Hong from Nankai University of tourism and service investigates innovative products and services in budget hotels and high level hotels. She conducted research based on the views of customers, and with the method of participant observation, informal personal interview, Delphi. The paper shows the differences in service innovation in the hotel industry and indicates the relationship between high-level hotels and budget hotels. In order to be sustainable in the market, hotels should find ways of offering innovative products and services.

Innovation is a good way to be competitive along with sustainability. Miguel Trias Vilar of the University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, beleives Corporate Social Responsibility is the key element to designing internal strategic marketing and changes. He takes luxury hotels in Balearic Islands as a case study, aiming to unveil some working methods to enable employees to live and perform coherently. If hotels do not run well, employees will move away. Yang Yun from Sun Yat-Sen University explains an interesting phenomenon. She conducted research on the effect of gender difference on turnover of hotels of employees in China. The study shows that hotels hire more females than males owing to its service function, which considers a number of positions traditionally perceived as male jobs. Married males and females usually choose to remain in service work, while the unmarried are inclined to leave.

The government plays an important role in the development of hotels. Wang Hong finds the optimization of the government’s role necessary to turn to service market effectively. So, we need to change the indicators for the government’s check which used to be “GDP”, let nongovernmental organizations play a role in an orderly manner and pay attention to the procedure of the participation of industry delegates.

Part II is related to the sustainable development and management of tourism destinations. Coastal products consist of beach and sun, however, experience is the new demand as Júlio Mendes from University of Algarve shows us. In the study, not only are nature and rural landscape, gastronomy, towns, and monuments the main motivations, but also the age and education of the tourist. The research suggests that there should be an integrated approach to sun and beach and nature and rural landscape products.

The sociological approach expands in tourism study. Mu Hong from Chongqing University of Technology applies symbiosis theory to research symbolic spatial structure of scenic spots. With the case study of Three Gorges, the development is based on the original authenticity construction. Perhaps the situation is different in desert scenic spots. Shi Jinlian from Caiptal Normal University researched on the impact factors of dynamic recreation value of desert scenic spots. The research indicates recreation values of desert scenic spots, which are closely related with tourist reception and travel cost; recreation expense courts for high percentage in the per capita consumption; abundance of tourism products and natural endowment of recreation resources have great influence on recreation value of desert scenic spots.

There are different kinds of scenic spots, such as National Nature Reserve, National Park of China, National Forest Park, and National Geo-park. However, they are cross-entitled in China. Research by Fu Guanghai from Chengdu University of Technology emphasizes the significance of the administrative system reform of the exploitation-prohibited region, which is of great importance to implement the main functional region division.

Dike-Pond agriculture is a traditional agricultural model developing in the Pearl River delta of China. Guo Shenghui from Guangzhou Panyu Polytechnic suggests that museums, agriculture bases, and synthetic ecotourism areas should be built to develop this traditional agricultural culture. In order to achieve cultural diffusion, some cultural marketing strategies are necessary. Wang Lin in her research indicates some measures that include demand-oriented cultural resources exploitation, competition-oriented brand culture positioning, and self-oriented marketing mix.

Microblog marking is a new-developed approach in tourism. Peng Qin from Chengdu Sport University researched the feasibility of tourism enterprises to carry out microblog marketing. This kind of marketing is systematic, scientific, rational, and valid, promoting the development of China’s tourism industry.

Julie Wen from the University of Western Sydney analyzed business training visitors from China and Australia. We can understand the motivation factors and expectations of these visitors from the qualitative date in the research. Compared with private traveling, business travel seems to be on the decline; however, it is far-reaching as their impression and feedback on Australia would have rippling effects on private traveling and Sino-Australian relationship. Motivation, satisfaction, and behavioral intention are the concerns of tourists. They go to Macau museum for different motivations as shown in the study of Tang Juan from Macau University of Science and Technology.

Part III focuses on tourism resource and tourism impact around the world, especially in Mainland China. The tourism industry can support and sustain economic growth recording important increases in different parts of the world. It has effects on the economic and social development of the local place. Tamer Ayad from Beijing Jiaotong University studied the relationship between tourism activities and the economic development, taking Kharga Oasis in Egypt as example. He collected 116 questionnaires as quantitative research and revealed that tourism development is of advantage to Kharga Oasis citizens. Besides, he suggested local culture consciousness should be created for the importance of concentrating on sustainability requirements in the future, maximizing the benefit of tourism development of Kharga Oasis.

Kharga Oasis citizens have a positive attitude toward tourism development; what is the attitude of the Chinese? Residents’ participation and attitude are the main contents of tourism impacts. Liu Jiaxue from Nanjing Xiaozhuang University made a comparative study of residents’ perception and participation toward tourism impact. She does SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) analysis to suggest there is a strong relationship between residents’ involvement and attitude toward tourism impact, and different involvement modes under different dominant force and profit distribution are the main causes.

With the participation of residents, tourism activity in rural areas has remarkably increased. Shen Suyan from Nanjing Forestry University analyzes regional rural development with a cognitive mapping approach with the case study of Jiangsu province. Her study indicates that rural tourism in northern Jiangsu area is still at the initial stage, while it is at mature stage in southern Jiangsu area. It shows land use is the key element to limit accommodation development, which is good for improving the future of rural tourism. To develop rural tourism in northern Jiangsu, market, land, and capital are the key problems to solve.

Tourism can improve the life of local people; meanwhile, festivals and exhibitions can develop tourism. Wang Xiaomin from South China University of Technology made a comparative research on industrial features between festivals and exhibitions in China. With content analysis method, the research shows that both differences and similarities exist between festivals and exhibitions. Both appear as a feature of “two head is large, the intermediate part is small.” Festivals are more concentrated than exhibitions in terms of industry distribution.

Ying-Chuan Wang from Macau University of Science and Technology researched the motivation of leisure travel from the view of college students. The model of pull and push is employed in the study, and the results indicate three categories of push actors: a esthetics, learning, self-actualization; the ability to find hygienic and comfortable accommodation and delicious food is the pull factor. The study can give some suggestion to tourism in Macau.

Tourism is a topic with different aspects, such as tourism education, public tourism service, tourist incidents, tourism resource in Part IV. Li Hui from Changchun Normal University finds out the problems of construction of tourism management professional teachers’ team using the case study of her school. It is urgent to give some suggestion: building structure, reasonable specialized teachers’ team, and training superb business professional leaders. It will probably be an effective way to have cooperation between enterprise and school. He Ying from Gansu Industry Polytechnic College introduces the cultivating pattern—“Cooperation between school and enterprise, combining learning with working, group developing”. Gansu Industry Polytechnic College has adopted this pattern for several years, besides, the results are satisfying. In the process, both school and enterprise play an important role and can get some improvement.

Tourism resource is the basic of tourism. Liushuang from Shanghai Normal University shows the current study of resource evaluation: the evaluation factors’ name is not enough standardization; It is lack of evaluation criteria and shows a stronger subjectivity; the use of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is to be improved. In the study, 35 evaluation factors have been identified and different indicators could be chosen to measure for a factor. The research indicates introducing strategy options layer and appropriating arrangement for the scoring process to improve the evaluation method.

Not only resource, tourists concern public tourism service as well. Xu Jufeng from Beijing Union University does a research on tourist demands and evaluation for public tourism service. The study shows tourism infrastructure, local soft environment, and tourism safety assurance are the important aspects of tourists concern. Safety must be assured, however, it seems difficult for “Lv You” tourism, which is a type of travel mode in China. Zheng Xiangmin from Huaqiao University adopts internet interview and information collection method to study the formation mechanism of “Lv You” tourism incidents. Individual factor, environmental factor, management factor, and institutional factor are the four factors, which account for the phenomena based on Grounded Theory analysis. Therefore, it is necessary to do some information research to keep safe. Zhang Jingjing from Griffith University provides insights for tourism marketers into traveler’s perception. Age, gender, income, and travel-related factors of previous visits are greatly connected with the usage and trustworthiness of information sources.

We hope the above can achieve two goals. First, to determine the structure, scale, and diversity of China’s tourism sector and to form a picture of tourism consumer study on China. The stunning rise of China makes clear to most foreign companies that to survive and thrive in the global market, one has to gain insight into the Chinese market. So, a “'road map” is needed to meet this challenge. In the past decade, an increasing number of researches have been conducted on China and its vast market from different perspectives. Some chapters of this book offer an overview of the development of China’s tourism industry with particular highlights on the following themes: domestic tourist markets, outbound tourist markets, tourism development, and the impact of tourism triggering the need for sustainable tourism development. The second objective of this book is to identify the levels where key decisions are made, how government control can be reinforced, and how the same influences can be effected on the nature of tourism development in destinations. Using these, some chapters focus on the governance of Chinese sustainable development. How can China’s government contribute to the governance of sustainable development—at the economic, social, and ecological scales—in ways that offer Chinese destinations, in principle and practice, an opportunity to play a more positive role in advocating a knowledge-based sustainable development paradigm.