An analysis of China's domestic tourist market

Lei Wang, Beijing University
Jiehua Lu, Beijing University

Chinese consumption of tourism activities has kept rising greatly since the 1990s. As the huge and quick economic growth, along with the improvement of education and health level and average personal income, the domestic tourism market will keep increasing absolutely. With the biggest population in the world and low fertility for a long time, the change of population structure will affect the tourist market deeply and widely. The data are mainly collected from the China Tourism Year Book (1995-2008) and IMI Yearbook (1999-2006). First, the size, age and gender structure, and social structure of domestic tourists and the size of the market will be shown. Second, both the time and space characteristics of tourists' behaviour will be described. Thirdly, a comparison among tourists living in several important cities and their behaviour characteristics will be conducted. Lastly, a brief prediction of the size and the structure of the market will be made.