Chinese tourism diplomacy: a chinese–style modernity review

ABSTRACT

Viewed from Chinese-style modernity, this article explores Chinese tourism diplomacy in relation to the development of Chinese outbound tourism. Using public policy analysis, the article examines the role of modern Chinese statecraft in the outbound tourism industry. It identifies four main characteristics in the nature of tourism diplomacy: the economic power of outbound tourism; outbound tourism as sanctionable or rewarding forces; the relatively low political sensitivity and high flexibility of outbound tourism; culture and tourism integration to enhance international relations. The article contributes to the literature by illuminating the interconnectivity between diplomacy and tourism via investigating through China-style modernity. It contributes to a repositioning of the nation-state power metrics of China’s outbound tourism industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism diplomacy
• chinese-style modernity
• outbound tourism
• nation-state power metrics
• policy analysis

Introduction

Along with its emergence as an economic superpower, China has also taken its place as a tourism superpower. Notably, it has grown to become a source of outbound tourists, with its tourists sought by countries worldwide. The emergence of COVID-19 has brought a halt to current growth, but this is likely to be temporary when the pandemic is brought under control. With this background it is certain that the volume of Chinese tourists, and their economic effects, will continue to be a major area of interest. As Lim et al. (2020) have noted in relation to trade in services, China’s outbound tourism is a key segment among the various economic weapons that serve China’s core national interests, a point that, unsurprisingly, is noted by a number of other researchers (Alves, 2013; Gallagher & Irwin, 2015; Kwon, 2020). For Kwon (2020), China’s financial statecraft has concentrated on its engagement in merchandise trading relationships with the political intention of taming neighbouring countries.

The more recent development of tourism has brought with it the almost inevitable emergence of China’s tourism diplomacy as an apparent and inevitable intervention in statecraft. As Black (2010:12), suggests “everyone … abroad is a diplomat for their country” and with this in mind Chinese outbound tourism has become one of China’s diplomatic resources. Chinese outbound tourists have become representatives of the nation, its people and its national governing policies. In China’s tourism development history, the former China National Tourism Administration officially proposed the term “tourism diplomacy” (China.com.cn, 2015), considering two aspects. First, the Chinese government pursues an independent foreign policy of peace, which is essentially different from the previous international exposition of tourism politics from the perspective of power. Secondly, the volume of Chinese outbound tourist numbers and their huge consumption power together build a strong practical foundation for China’s tourism diplomacy.

With the concept of tourism diplomacy proposed and approved by government documents, tourism diplomacy has attracted more and more attention from the diplomatic, tourism and academic circles. This article argues that tourism diplomacy is in accordance with the theme of the development process in Chinese outbound tourism. Drawing from various existing literatures, newsletters from Chinese media, and some resources in English, this article examines the relationship between tourism diplomacy and China’s development against the backdrop of the advancement of modernity in the Chinese context.

Through theoretical discussion and general administrative analysis, the article contributes to the existing literatures in three major domains. First, it provides a theoretical discussion on the interconnectivity between diplomacy and tourism, based on insights into the relationship between the Eurocentric modernity theory and Chinese-style modernity. Secondly, it investigates the issue of Chinese tourism diplomacy. It provides an analysis to understand Chinese tourism diplomacy in terms of its economic contributions and collaborations with the destinations (for the purpose of pursuing mutual benefits) and the nation-state interventions to manipulate (control) the outflow of Chinese tourists (for the purpose of “weaponizing” outbound tourism). Thirdly, it explores the operational mechanisms of tourism diplomacy, summarizing the interventions adopted by the Chinese government and Chinese outbound tourists.

The article applies the discussion of the concepts of Chinese-style modernity to examine Chinese outbound tourism. To Hall (1994), tourism outflows among different nations promote positive political connectivity. These positive effects could be a testimony of the governing approach of the Chinese authority on the outbound tourism industry (Tse & Hobson, 2008). These are embedded in China’s nation-state regime and its geopolitical metrics shown in the outbound tourism industry (Siriphon & Zhu, 2018). Cooper (2005:127), indicates that “the concept of modernity, multiplied, therefore runs the gamut, from a singular narrative of capitalism, the nation-state, and individualism – with multiple effects and responses – to a word for everything that has happened in the last five hundred years”.

Here, there is an obvious theoretical gap in the discussion about differences between Western modernity and Chinese-style modernity. Via an articulation and comparison of modernity concepts of both Eurocentrism and the Sino-centric lens, it accommodates the investigation of ethical facets of tourism’s geopolitical metrics that imply some extended parameters like nation-state viability and (hard/soft) power projection (Weaver, 2015). Meanwhile, how does the introduction of tourism diplomacy relate to the mega-governance of Chinese outbound tourism. Tourism diplomacy, as a typical soft operation model of a country’s foreign strategy, has gradually taken place in Chinese politics, economy, culture and everyday life. As T. S. Tse (2013) notes, Chinese outbound tourism has become a manifestation of China’s soft power, which is inextricably intertwined with international geopolitical power metrics (T. S. M. Tse, 2011).

Thus, this article intends to address the following research questions: (1) How does the evolving transformation of Chinese outbound tourism reflect the concept of Chinese-style modernity via an interpretation of its economy-benefiting and sanctionable power? (2) How do the features of low political sensitivity and high flexibility in Chinese outbound tourism exemplify Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy? (3) How the trend of Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy – the integration of culture and tourism – renders it as a form of cultural diplomacy in the Chinese outbound tourism development process?

Understanding Chinese-style modernity and its uniqueness

Tourism activities exist all over the world. One of the predominant perspectives to understand tourism practices via the western-centric focus is that modern tourism practices originated in the prosperous Global North. Mass production and labour divisions contributed to the prosperity of Western societies which in turn helped to promote the Western tourism industries. However, societies other than those of the West also developed their own tourism-oriented philosophy (Spracklen, 2011). As S.(Sam) Huang et al. (2015) point out, the accelerated leap of the Chinese economy and the unprecedented growth in tourism has brought tremendous challenges to the hosting destinations, out of which the most challenging issues are the reversed host-guest relationships.

This is a reverse of the stereotype of the dominating post-colonial world vison: tourist-generating source markets have moved from traditionally developed regions to the new source markets, for instance, China, India and Brazil. The social implications of this phenomenon raise a range of issues. Weaver (2015), one of the first scholars to link the Chinese outbound tourism with the China dream, noted that outbound tourism used to be an exclusive aspiration for Chinese tourists, catering for a very small group of those with higher social status. However, the reality today is that the increasing volume of wealthier citizens and with only 10 % of Chinese people holding a passport, means that the market potential remains huge (Xu & Luo, 2019).

In China, specifically since the mid-1990s, the concept of “modernity” has gradually become a popular issue in theoretical discussions. The reasons for this increase in academic interest lie in the fact that Chinese society has stepped into the fast track of modernization and begun to reform towards a modern society. Therefore, witnessing the modern transformation of the economy and society, scholars are naturally paying attention to its philosophical and cultural nature. In other words, academia in and out of China are paying attention to its reforming thinking, transformative values, and people’s social behaviour. In addition, the emergence and introduction of the concept of postmodernism and post-modernity has naturally attracted scholars’ attention and aroused academic interest in theoretical discussions and debates. With the West talking about post-modernity, what kind of modernity should China’s theoretical and academic circles form? Can China achieve the purpose of subletting modernity based on postmodernism’s critique of modernity? There is even another expectation: can China go beyond modernity and directly enter the phase of post-modernity?

Cultural authority, as criticized by Nyíri (2011), has become a distinctive feature of Chinese modernity. In this, the discourse of the China Threat is prominent, and public opinion believes that China poses many kinds of threats to the world’s security (Storey & Yee, 2004). Chinese tourism can also be seen as an act of cultural hegemony and expansion, termed as a form of cultural chauvinism (Tucker, 2014). These criticisms were generated from those ancient “wisdoms”, for instance, strategic legitimacy of hegemony, strategic annexation and alliance formation, establishing new norms to becoming a hegemon by using comprehensive forces (Yan, 2013). Revisiting the cultural authority from another angle, we can see other literatures trying to understand the uniqueness, the features, and the visionary future development of the Chinese nation-state. Husenicová (2012) identifies some key words to interpret this China threat theory from the discourses of the other side, for instance, peaceful rise, changing style of leadership, defensive realism, socialism of Chinese characteristics, all of which consist of the distinctive features of the Chinese-style modernity. The original modernity from Europe has produced complex deformations and various variants in today’s globalization. Chinese leaders are ambitious enough to propose a new theoretical paradigm, conceptualizing and diagnosing the complex relationships and consequences between modernity norms, modernity experience conditions and social facts. To address this basic theoretical understanding of China’s outbound tourism issues, the concept of alternative modernity is used here, to observe ideological enlightenment, social progress, and socialist ideology proposed from Chinese media.

Chinese-style modernity consists of an ambitious intent to create a modern Chinese knowledge system. Modernity itself has never shown a ubiquitous formation. There is neither a fixed model of modernity nor a universal standard of modernity. Chinese-style modernity follows a path that is very different from Western modernity. Chinese-style modernity is a modernity with a huge population that exceeds the total population of all existing developed countries. Centring on the people’s wellbeing and gradually realizing the modernity of common prosperity for all people, it is the modernity of material civilization, institutional civilization, and spiritual civilization intertwining with each other and promoting a coordinated development among all dimensions. It is the modernity of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the unity of economic and social development with the development of the human being. It is to follow the path of peaceful development and take mutual benefit and win-win as the value standard for country-to-country exchanges. Further elaboration of this idea can be found in the underlying tenets of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) (Daye et al., 2020). China’s tourism diplomacy, to some extent, is one of the underlying themes in the BRI, which has undoubtedly become the main focus among China and the related countries since its first proposal in September 2013 (Cheng, 2016; Cho et al., 2017). From this, the BRI can be seen as a manifestation of Chinese-style modernity consisting of building a community with a shared future for mankind (Liu, 2019; Zhao, 2018).

Two distinctive understandings concerning Chinese power in an overseas context have been extensively discussed: the realistic perspective perceived China as a rising super power to challenge the existing world order, while a new-liberalism version of the perception concentrated on the constructive side of China within its membership of the international community (Husenicová, 2012). This academic gap facilitates two perspectives for scholars to consider: on the one hand, it is necessary to study the linkage between the empirical reality of contemporary China’s outbound tourism policy and mega-governance and the power metrics orientation of the Chinese government for its strategic purposes and national interests. On the other hand, it is also necessary to investigate the uniqueness of China-style modernity and its exemplification in the Chinese outbound tourism sector. By fulfiling these two objectives, this article draws on some discourses and literatures coming from the China side and strives to conceptualize an analytical framework to understand the structural metrics of Chinese outbound tourism within the scope of tourism diplomacy.

Methodology

The research approach adopted in this article is public policy analysis (Dunn, 2015; Fischer & Miller, 2017), and in line with this it draws on documentary resources, qualitative data, official government notices and news media content. Further, existing literatures on key concepts of modernity, Chinese-style modernity, and some underlying literatures on the BRI and tourism development issues are adopted. Public policy analysis, according to Guba and Lincoln (1989), involves the following phases. The original policy evaluation is measurement-oriented. Next, policy evaluation is more description-oriented emphasizing the description of the advantages and disadvantages of clear public policy goals. This then leads to an evolutional change of policy evaluation with judgemental evaluation. A further phase of policy analysis is a responsive and constructivist evaluation model. Generally speaking, public policy evaluation starts from empirical positivism and corrects its own defects in continuous practice and theoretical exploration.

An in-depth policy analysis was adopted on the evolutionary process of Chinese outbound tourism policy change. The initial data collection aimed at conducting a full process of public policy evaluation. Public policy is one of the guiding principles for any government to maintain its management of public affairs, which determines targets of management, and also affects its results. With its rapid development, China’s outbound tourism has become a strategic pillar industry of the national economy with the content of tourism policy not only playing an important guiding role, but also having a lasting impact on the whole social economy.

Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy as nation-state power

Bringing tourism into the traditional category of diplomacy enriches the non-traditional diplomatic theory of international relations (Baranowski et al., 2019). The starting point to explore this rests with national interest which is goal-oriented for each independent regime as well as being the main target for academia to analyse implicit national motivations through foreign diplomacy behaviour. Above all, foreign diplomacy is about expanding interests and improving the living environment and, notwithstanding the view that national interests are doomed to witness confrontations and conflicts (Chien & Ritchie, 2018; Zhu & Siriphon, 2019), there is also a view that the principle baseline for each sovereign state is to handle state relations and international affairs through peaceful interventions. It is in this context that international tourism, can be viewed as a potential element of foreign diplomacy, seen as predominantly a “peaceful endeavour” (Becken & Carmignani, 2016; Levy & Hawkins, 2009; Pedersen, 2020). It can also be seen as a tool of neo-liberalism and of diplomatic retaliation once it is integrated into the country’s political and economic demands. In terms of maintaining the peaceful nature of tourism, the new realism gives a solution: relying on the power metric balance to ease the potential confrontations and conflicts. This is consistent with Kissinger’s diplomatic philosophy of the Limits of Power (Buultjens, 1982).

Based on the above discussion, the claim here is that tourism diplomacy can provide a potential theory to discuss Chinese outbound tourism. The definition of tourism diplomacy by scholars mainly starts from its purpose, content and action and it can be divided into three levels: macro, meso and micro. The macro level mainly refers to the national or government levels, which are deemed as institutional or social structural facets. For instance, an official visit by a Chinese President may promote the destination to Chinese tourists, as well as to Chinese tourism companies (Quer, 2021). The meso level is the institutional level of tourism companies, industry organizations and think tanks who provide suggestions and consultancies. The micro level is the individual Chinese outbound tourists at a social agency level. To clarify the definition of Chinese tourism diplomacy, we need to look into its content. Tourism diplomacy includes not only the exchanges between official tourism agencies of Chinese and foreign countries, but also the exchanges between Chinese tourists and local residents, tourism enterprises, industry organizations and intellectual institutions. It includes both cultural exchanges and economic exchanges.

Some scholars believe that tourism diplomacy contains strong political intentions, in which Xing and Breda (2020) indicate that despite the tourism industry being subject to market forces, it often also serves wider geopolitical imperatives. It is a public relations strategy that aims to win the hearts of people in the destinations and to show the image of the country through various interpersonal interactions. Fan (2010) also proposed that tourism diplomacy refers to a country’s behaviour in international tourism activities, termed as a “united front” (p248), turning outbound tourism into a source of revenue for the destinations. Fan also noted that the potential consumption power operated by state-owned travelling agencies of China and its authority regime may exert manipulation over the outflow of Chinese outbound tourists. Huang et al. (2021) indicate that the happiness level of a destination country can cast numerous impacts on Chinese tourists’ outbound travel choices, in which the authors indicate that Chinese outbound tourists’ destination choices are, in its essence, casting impacts on destinations’ happiness levels. Other corresponding measures include participating in international tourism conferences, setting up tourism offices in each other’s territory, or conducting international tourism cooperation and exchanges. Tourism diplomacy refers to a country’s behaviour in international tourism cooperation in order to strengthen mutual exchanges and cooperation, promote human civilization and dissemination, and protect the rights and interests of its tourists abroad from harmful consequences.

Tourism diplomacy can be divided into official tourism diplomacy and non-governmental tourism diplomacy. It has three major attributes: economic, cultural and non-political. Economic attributes provide a lasting impetus for tourism diplomacy, cultural attributes provide the foundation for the far-reaching influence of tourism diplomacy, and non-political, low sensitivity attributes expand the applicability of tourism diplomacy. With the huge volume of Chinese tourists and their huge economic effects, inbound and outbound tourists have become one of the diplomatic resources that China can use. The three major attributes mean that it can offer unique advantages and contribute to China’s tourism diplomacy. By promoting culture and tourism integration, outbound tourism itself will be enhancing mutual exchanges and understanding and deepening people-to-people connectivity. Based on these concepts and drawing on this study of China we can explore Chinese outbound tourism development strategy under four characteristics namely: (a) tourism diplomacy entails economic impacts; (b) tourism diplomacy includes sanctionable power; (c) tourism diplomacy has lower political sensitivity and higher flexibility; (d) tourism diplomacy includes integration of culture and tourism, generating a form of cultural diplomacy.

The enhancement of economic collaboration enriches the tourism economic impacts

The first of these characteristics relates to the economic dimensions of tourism. The comprehensive development of tourism diplomacy has brought many mutual benefits and advantages to both the tourist-generating country and the destination countries. Considering the economic impact of Chinese outbound tourism on the destinations, China has significantly increased its economic influential powers over international destinations. Since tourism diplomacy can directly bring economic benefits to the national economy of the country, tourism diplomacy has received more and more attention from all countries. As China has grown into the world’s largest tourist source country, the economic nature of tourism diplomacy has become one of the important factors that many countries expect in order to strengthen exchanges. Also, cooperation with China Tourism diplomacy operates in a silent way making it easier to ease the tensions that have their origin in the differentiation of societies. Karki (2020) researched how tourism serves as a tool for diplomacy, for the purpose of increasing intimacy among people from Nepal and China. In terms of new realism, we can observe some examples of how China applies China-style modernity concepts in terms of power-sharing and mutual development in the tourism industry These include, for instance, China and France (France Diplomatie, 2019), Russia (Pang & Zhang, 2018), South Korea (Timothy & Kim, 2015), United States (Mejia et al., 2018), Australia (Rochon et al., 2016), European Union (Estol et al., 2018) and Switzerland (Hu et al., 2014). Tourism Year activities are a key part of China’s tourism diplomacy under the goal of balance of power policy and equal tourism rights and interests.

Concerning Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy, the Approved Destination Status (ADS) has played a key role. This scheme provides an agreement between international destinations and the Chinese government to host Chinese tourists in package groups (Arita et al., 2012), thereby encouraging Chinese outbound tourists to the selected destinations. In short, the ADS is a quasi-bilateral agreement to simplify the visa procedures for Chinese tourist groups of between 5 and 50 people. The system is authorizing to both the Chinese tour operators and the international destinations (He, 2010). By December 2016, the outbound tourism destinations for Chinese citizens to visit as package group tours reached 153 countries/regions with a further four destinations approved in 2017.

A sanctionable power to further national interests

The second characteristic relates to Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy as an instrument of statecraft to further national interests a point that was picked up by Shaheer et al. (2019) in their study of motivations for boycotting in tourism. Here outbound tourism furthers national interests through the control of individual tourist’s choices by, for example, the Chinese central government leveraging or deleveraging travel restrictions or presenting national advocacy and publicity. One recent example relates to the Diaoyu Island Issue with Japan in 2010 when the collision between a Chinese ship and a Japanese coastal protection vessel created a political issue. This led to the Chinese government suspending tourism cooperation between the two countries and cancelling high level tourism talks (Jin et al., 2019). This retaliation had significant influence on Japan’s tourism industry (Park, 2010). Another example relates to South Korea’s acquisition of the THAAD missile system from the United States about which the Chinese government protested. This and the associated propaganda adversely affected the view of South Korea by the Chinese with the effect that travel to the country was discouraged with associated cancellation of flights, boycotting of products as well as sanctions and street demonstrations (Lee et al., 2020; Su et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). In short, China can be said to have weaponized its outbound tourism industry.

Low sensitivity of outbound tourism policy in the nation-state power metrics

The third characteristic of China’s tourism diplomacy in tourism is its low sensitivity and high flexibility in political power metrics. Tourism is a cause of peaceful development. In modern society tourism can be seen as exerting an inhibiting, subservient or mediating role in different nations’ reconciliations (Farmaki, 2017). Jin et al. (2019) analysed the framework of post-crisis management in Chinese outbound tourist flows, which testified that international cross-border tourism can be highly susceptible to politics, economic impacts and environmental influences, while Chinese outbound tourism can be the first measure for two disputing nations to resume civilian contact and cultural exchange. Usually, tourism diplomacy aims at promoting economic and social development and welfare, which belongs to the category of low-level politics with low political sensitivity. This is also one of the important factors in the popularity of tourism diplomacy. Affected by the nature of tourism, the political meaning of tourism diplomacy is relatively weak, which makes it easy to be widely accepted by the international community. Paik (2020) recognizes the political factors in the Chinese tourism economy investigating the consequences of the tourism diplomacy power metrics, among which the state-society relations and the political economy can be the core of the themes discussed. In the cultural industry, tourism external activities are often less political and more acceptable than pure cultural activities, including literature and art, news, information and other external activities. This low sensitivity attribute of tourism diplomacy gives it an advantage, and it can help thaw the bilateral relations during sensitive diplomatic periods.

The advocacy of cultural tourism diplomacy and the integration of culture and tourism

The fourth characteristic deals with the increasing integration of culture and tourism, as a form of daily cultural practice, which can be seen as a manifestation of Chinese-style modernity. The parallel activities of officials in foreign affairs and outbound tourists in terms of their cultural embeddedness are obvious: for example, in cross-border practices or confrontation with alien political, social, economic and cultural realities (Baranowski et al., 2019). Chinese diplomacy in the outbound tourism industry can be seen in the aspiration that the Chinese outbound tourists and students show the national image overseas as geopolitical ambassadors, which in turn facilitates the establishment of a Chinese national image overseas. The rapid change of cultural tourism consumption promotes the integration of the cultural industry and the tourism industries. The integration of culture and tourism needs to be examined in the context of modernity. Nostalgia, duplication, fragmentation and other modernity related discourses have penetrated production, service, consumption and experience in the development of cultural tourism, and have driven the market allocation of cultural tourism resources. A good example of such cultural activity is the Loy Krathong and Yi Peng festival (also called the Flying Lantern Festival) in Thailand. This festival has been celebrated annually since 1995. It attracts tourists from all over the world, most from China. For the city of Chiang Mai, this special cultural event generated (estimated by senior provincial official) more than one billion Bhat between 20–23, November, 2018 (The Nation, 2018), of which more than half came from incoming Chinese tourists. Here culture and tourism are integrated, in a way in which the Thai cultural activity becomes an attraction for Chinese tourists.

Under the guidance of the reform of the national cultural tourism system, which included the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in China in 2017 (CGTN, 2018), cultural experience, nostalgia, and cultural performance have become important driving forces of cultural tourism integration. In this way the integration of culture and tourism leads the market to play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and enhances the role of the government in the reform of the cultural system, hence providing the two forces of both an invisible hand as well as a visible hand. It is a way to promote the organic unity and integration of the role of the market and the role of the government.

Summarizing the above-mentioned characteristics of Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy in a modern scenario, we can see these following four focal points: economic characteristics provide lasting impetus for Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy; the sanctionable power of Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy provides an integral part in China’s pursuit of its national interest; the low sensitivity characteristics expand the applicability of tourism diplomacy; and the cultural characteristics provide the basis for the profound impact of tourism diplomacy. These four together illustrate some of the uniqueness and advantages of China’s tourism diplomacy.

Discussion

Against a background of overall development and economic globalization, China has gradually awakened and embarked on the road of peaceful development with the dual promotion of traditional ideas and reality. In the process of promoting peaceful development, China has so far recognized and chosen peaceful diplomatic interventions. Tourism diplomacy is not only an important form of social interaction, but also an important means to promote the development of productive forces, and an important part of peaceful diplomacy.

Based on an understanding of the particularities of tourism diplomacy, the case can be made that tourism diplomacy has a special role and significance in a peaceful and mutual beneficial development process (Wintersteiner & Wohlmuther, 2014; Xing & Breda, 2020). The function of tourism diplomacy is silent, so it is an important force to promote the development of two nations’ relationships. Tourism diplomacy has accelerated the pace of China’s integration into globalization and enriched the connotation of the overall development. Tourism diplomacy has become a by-product in todays’ world and a passport to peace by contributing to a peaceful cultural diplomacy (Carbone, 2017; Farmaki, 2017; Pedersen, 2020). On the one hand, in its inherent nature, tourism provides a good premise for the emergence of tourism diplomacy for peace. On the other hand, after reform and opening up, China’s tourism industry has grown and eventually become an important industry in the adjustment of domestic and foreign policies (Chen & Duggan, 2016; Lai, 2013). Thanks to the potentiality of peace diplomacy of tourism brought about by Reform-and-Opening-Up policy, China’s tourism diplomacy gradually grew and finally came into being at the end of the last century. China and its neighbouring countries are facing new opportunities and stages in developing tourism diplomacy. It is recommended that efforts should be made in the following areas.

First, it is important to enhance the relationship between national-level governing bodies. The existing tourism mechanism should be fully utilized to improve the degree of international and regional tourism integration. China and many neighbouring countries are each other’s important source of tourists, and it is necessary to improve the convenience of tourism within the region. But just as important are the measures to attract international tourists from outside the region and create common interests. In order to ensure that the behaviour of the destination government adapts to the target of the country of origin of tourists, the rational use of local resources is the key issue of national governance. Based on the framework of political, business and non-governmental relations, there is a need to support the coordination of national relations and promote the sound development of the international tourism industry. This requires wide international attention, improving the international influence of a Chinese presence, improving the international level of financial services, and promoting the internationalization of Chinese society as a whole.

Secondly, taking tourism cooperation as the forerunner, it is suggested to enhance mutual exchange, understanding and deepening people-to-people connectivity. Deng et al. (2019) took into account the geographic, cultural and institutional distance to conduct an empirical study of overseas investment by the Chinese government in tourism. Taking China-Thailand relations as an example, tourism exchanges and cooperation have the potential to provide a new breakthrough for the two countries to deepen mutual exchanges. Tourism diplomacy has the potential to become a mutually beneficial collaboration. In the process of tourism diplomacy with neighbouring countries, cooperation in the fields of tourism talent training, tourism promotion and tourism sustainability can be strengthened to deepen people-to-people connectivity.

Thirdly, to give full play to the economic and low-sensitivity characteristics of tourism diplomacy, it is necessary to further deepen government-civilian cooperation, encourage more tourism enterprises, industry organizations and think tanks to participate in the Tourism Year and tourism promotion conferences and to coordinate with the overall diplomatic situation. At the same time, tourism diplomacy should set up a good platform for cooperation between Chinese and local tourism companies in neighbouring countries.

Fourthly, there is scope to further strengthen the integration of culture and tourism. China and its neighbouring countries have similar cultural backgrounds. Developing tourism diplomacy with neighbouring countries can give full play to the role of culture in promoting tourism exchanges and countries can learn from each other’s measures and experiences of cultural tourism integration. In particular, it is necessary to actively explore how to use new methods and new media for modern cultural dissemination and integrate them with tourism promotion.

Finally, Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy is of importance to facilitate resilience under the impact of the COVID-19. In this connection, Wen et al. (2021) proposed some key potential effects that present “adverse consequences on the global tourism and hospitality industry” (p74). Most countries-imposed countermeasures, for instance, border closures, international travel bans, or self-quarantine at home. Under the current impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic it is time to rethink the role of tourism diplomacy in fostering a new era of a new normal, facilitated by governmental policies by increasing capacities in virus testing, mobility tracing, as well as affirmed case isolation and quarantine. In this regard, Chinese tourism diplomacy has witnessed a public health security turn by proceeding to develop a variety of COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, the forthcoming extensive vaccination of Chinese tourists will be definitely safeguarding the world tourism economy and cross-border travel. Assuming the premise of building a shared future of mankind to fight against the shared enemy of COVID-19 (Qian et al), the world tourism economy will recover and bounce back.

Regarding the four major characteristics of China’s tourism diplomacy, we can summarize the above discussion in Figure 1 based on a theoretical deduction using key words relating to the discussion of Chinese tourism diplomacy.

Figure 1. Discursive framework of Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy.

In brief, tourism diplomacy with Chinese-style modernity has many unique features of modernity in the modern development process of China (Zhu et al., 2021). With the further development of tourism diplomacy, its functions will become increasingly powerful, and the effects will be more obvious. These characteristics and advantages are favourable conditions for the peaceful development of the world political and economic scenario.

Conclusion and implications

This article started with the differentiation of the traditional concept of modernity and Chinese modernity. By applying the theoretical debates on modernity and Chinese-style modernity, it introduces Chinese tourism diplomacy as a form of Chinese modernity as well as its governance in Chinese outbound tourism. The elaboration of the three research questions presented earlier, contribute to the existing literature in their theoretical significance and contribution. The theoretical answers to the three research questions are: (1) the evolving transformation of Chinese outbound tourism reflects the concept of Chinese-style modernity by offering benefits to the economy as well as powers to the Chinese State which can be expressed through tourism China’s diplomacy. (2) The features of low political sensitivity and high flexibility have allowed China to use its tourism diplomacy and to achieve its goals in a relatively non- confrontational way. (3) The further integration of culture and tourism has provided some key strengths in its tourism diplomacy in helping tourism to strengthen external links.

In essence through its tourism diplomacy, China has allowed a freer market-oriented competition, while also maintaining an ultimately centralized state control and guidance. These efforts have not merely illuminated the intertwined relationship between tourism and diplomacy, but also identified pathways to further investigations by scholars in travel and tourism, as well as in political and social sciences. The discussions here emphasize the critical investigation into tourism diplomacy in enhancing China’s soft power and its international influential power via establishing a national image overseas. To be specific, the article investigates Chinese-style modernity via discussion on the economic impacts, instrumental statecraft, the low sensitivity/high flexibility of tourism policies and the integration of culture and tourism. The function of tourism diplomacy lies in the relationship between countries and their people. With the continuous deepening of the Reform-and-Opening-Up policy, China’s tourism diplomacy has been fully developed in the fields of politics, the economy, culture, and comprehensive achievement in establishing national image. The comprehensive development of China’s tourism diplomacy is actually the process of the country’s further integration into globalization. It is also an important component of the country’s foreign peaceful development intervention.

China’s tourism diplomacy has been fully restored and developed in depth at both the governmental and the non-governmental levels. Brand-new changes have taken place in terms of form and scale, as well as features and significance. New progress has been made at the economic level and economic intentions. It has become clearer, and the intensity of foreign cooperation has been continuously increased. It has received more attention on the cultural level as well. The scope of domestic culture and tourism integration has been continuously expanded. On the political level, tourism diplomacy has served more of the country’s overall political interests. It enhances the ability to respond to the country’s externally sensitive issues and created a good international environment for the country’s external peaceful development. On the other hand, tourism diplomacy also has a good performance in its enhancement in regional cooperation.

As Chinese-style modernity has proceeded, Chinese outbound tourism diplomacy has been deployed as economic statecraft, a platform for mutual understanding, and a window for horizon expansion. This article contributes to the existing literature in its systematic theoretical discussion of the conceptual framework of Chinese-style modernity that guides outbound tourism diplomacy. Regarding the current shadow of the COVID-19 epidemic, a lack of Chinese tourists leads to a 10 billion Euro loss annually (Chi & Zhang, 2020). All in all, whatever previous criticisms have been made about the manipulation of Chinese travellers’ destination choices, in its essence, it provides a course of peace. The more Chinese people outflow, the more there is the potential for collaboration, negotiation, and mutual understanding. Despite political disputes and disagreements, tourism can still serve as a flexible and less sensitive platform for different nations to meet, negotiate and further enhance mutual understanding and strengthen collaboration.

The limitations of this article lie in the fact that its main focus is on the discussion of nation-statecraft which means taking a broad vision which often means abstract and hierarchical discussion. Another shortcoming is that the article focuses more on the period pre-COVID-19 rather than on the effects of the epidemic. There is certainly a need to further explore China’s national tourism policy change during this public health crisis, its countermeasures and recovery policies.

Acknowledgments

This research article is part of a Ph.D. dissertation in Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, entitled “Chinese Outbound Tourism and Alternative Modernity: A Reflexive Study of Chinese Transnational Tourists in Thailand”. This article is part of academic achievements of first-class universities and disciplines in tourism management discipline (project) in Guangxi, China. The corresponding author has also been participating in research projects supported by Guilin Tourism University-China ASEAN Research Centre.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Guangxi Research Fund [2021QGRW066]; Guilin Tourism University [KJ0603227]. The receiver of the fundings is Mr. Jinsheng (Jason) Zhu, the first author of the article.

Notes on contributors

Jinsheng (Jason) Zhu

Jinsheng (Jason) Zhu is a lecturer in the Belt and Road International School, Guilin Tourism University. He is currently a Ph. D. candidate in faculty of Social Sciences and Anthropology in Chiangmai University, Thailand. His primary research interests are tourists' mobility, ASEAN tourism strategy studies, and the wave of Chinese outbound tourism.

Aranya Siriphon

Aranya Siriphon is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Her primary research interests are border and trans-border studies, media and journalism studies, and the new wave of Chinese migrants and mobility in mainland Southeast Asia.

David Airey

David Airey is an emeritus professor of University of Surrey, a UNWTO Ulysses Laureate, a fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and an honorary fellow of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education.

Jin Mei-lan

Jin Mei-lan is a  professor  and director of  office of academic affairs in Guilin Tourism University. Her interests ranges from tourists behavior,  tourism psychology to tourism management issues.