Chinese Outbound Tourism Segmentation: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

ABSTRACT

The growth of Chinese outbound tourism over the past two decades is attracting great attention among researchers. After an initial stage where this market was analyzed as a whole, the number of studies focusing on segmentation is on the rise. This paper carries out a systematic review of 171 articles published between 1995 and 2020 in top-tier tourism journals that either focused on a specific segment or established segments of mainland Chinese outbound tourists. The literature review reports an analysis of publication outlets, chronological evolution, destinations, research methods, segments, and main findings. It also identifies research gaps and suggests potential future research avenues.

摘要

中国出境旅游过去二十年的增长引起了学术界的极大关注。在对中国出境旅游市场进行整体分析的初始阶段后, 专注于市场细分的研究数量正在增加。本文对 1995 年至 2020 年间发表在顶级旅游期刊上的 171 篇文章进行了系统性回顾, 这些文章关注中国大陆出境游客的特定市场细分或已建立的市场细分。此文献综述对出版渠道, 时间演变, 目的地, 研究方法, 市场细分和主要发现做出了分析。本文还确定了研究空白并提出了未来潜在的研究路径。

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese outbound tourism
• market segmentation
• literature review

关键词:

• 中国出境旅游
• 市场细分
• 文献综述

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diego Quer

Diego Quer is an associate professor at the Department of Management, University of Alicante, Spain, and a visiting professor at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan, China. His research interests focus on international management and tourism in the Chinese context. He has published works in journals such as Current Issues in Tourism, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Tourism Research, Tourism Economics, and Journal of China Tourism Research (E-mail: [email protected]/ ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5814-6411).

Jianrong Peng

Jianrong Peng is a researcher at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan, China. She is also a PhD candidate at the Tourism Research Institute, University of Alicante, Spain. Her main line of research focuses on Chinese outbound tourism, with a special emphasis on Latin America as a destination. She has extensive experience in research projects dealing with the relationships between China and Latin American countries regarding social and economic issues (E-mail: [email protected]/ ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2016-1349).