Chinese Research on Family Tourism: Review and Research Implications

ABSTRACT

With increases in disposable income in China as well as the traditional focus on family life, family tourism is one of the fastest growing segments in contemporary Chinese tourism. This study presents a systematic review of 66 research articles from Chinese academic journals published between 1995 and 2015. The general trend, themes and methods are analyzed. Listening to children’s voices, paying attention to diverse family types, the influence of social media on family travel, collaboration among researchers with different backgrounds, and thinking through the role of Chinese culture are posited as topics requiring increased attention to enhance future family tourism research in China.

摘要

随着可支配收入的增加和对家庭生活的重视，家庭旅游成为当代中国旅游业中增长最快的部分之一。 本文作者对1995至2015年期间发表在中国学术期刊的66篇研究论文进行了系统性的回顾。分析了研究的总体趋势，研究的主要领域，以及采用的主要研究方法。 为提升中国家庭旅游研究的质量，未来研究可重点关注：中国家庭旅游的独特性、儿童的心声、不同的家庭类型、社交媒体对家庭旅游的影响。与此同时，还需要加强不同背景的学者之间的合作。

KEYWORDS:

• Family tourism
• Chinese research
• bibliometric analysis
• benchmarking
• implications

关键词:

• 家庭旅游
• 中国研究
• 文献分析
• 比较、启发

Acknowledgement

Appreciation is extended to Ms Jiaqi Guo of the School of Management at Zhejiang University for her assistance in conducting some of the bibliometric analyses. Thanks are also given to Dr Junqing Zhai of the School of Education at Zhejiang University for his insightful comments on the earlier version of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mao-Ying Wu

Mao-Ying Wu, PhD is an Associate Professor of Tourism in the School of Management, Zhejiang University, China. She is interested in the well-being of tourism communities, tourists in emerging markets, and tourist-host interaction in cross cultural contexts. (E-mail: [email protected]).

Geoffrey Wall

Geoffrey Wall, PhD is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is active in research and is involved in a number of international projects in Asia, particularly mainland China and Taiwan. (E-mail: [email protected]).