1
TOURISM IN CHINA:
A REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN LEADING JOURNALS
Rosario Andreu, Enrique Claver and Diego Quer
University of Alicante, Spain
Abstract
The Chinese tourism sector is experiencing one of the highest levels of growth, to the extent
that China is set to become the leading world power in tourism within the coming decade.
Therefore, studying this important sector deserves particular attention. The aim of this study
is to analyse the state of the art of China tourism research by reviewing 95 academic papers
published between 1997 and 2008 in the world’s three leading tourism journals: Annals of
Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Management. We report the main
topics analysed as well as various rankings of journals, citations, individual and institutional
contributions.
Key words: China tourism research, contributions, citations, issues.