Contemporary Perspectives on China Tourism is an innovative and engaging collection which presents unique approaches and critical insights into the policy, development and management practices of tourism and hospitality in modern China. This volume consists of nine independent research reports overarching the consequences of tourism from economic, sociocultural, community, and humanistic perspectives. The book addresses generic issues such as tourism demand, mega events, leisure, tourist experience, cultural representation, community development, and quality of life through tourism, as well as strategies and techniques specific to the tourism and hospitality industries. Contemporary Perspectives on China Tourism draws on methodological traditions of anthropology, business, communication and media studies, geography, linguistics and literature, sociology, and critical tourism studies. Seven of the nine chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue on "Methodological Innovations in China Tourism Research" of the Journal of China Tourism Research.

Poverty and Prosperity: Tourism in Rural China focuses on tourism and rural community development in the light of Confucianism and Taoism. Drawing from ethnographic field research in Southern China, the authors present an evolutionary as well as a horizontal view of tourism and rural community development through an illustrative case. Narratives from villagers involved in (or affected by) tourism development in the case study village are highly embedded in, and culturally informative of, rural community development with Chinese characteristics. A valuable source of reference and an addition to the pro-poor tourism knowledge, this book offers an epistemologically unique and much needed perspective on researching and practicing tourism for poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.

Deriving from a special issue on "China Watching" (Journal of China Tourism Research), this book presents the readers with a collection of seven independent research reports that adopt cross-cultural communication and cultural studies approaches to China tourism. Topics covered include the authenticity in cultural diffusion, the articulation of China through tourism, cross-cultural comparison of vacation consumption interpretation, the Chinese gaze of Europe, influence of globalization and localization on the development of tourism, behavioral implications of Chinese outbound tourism, and citing behaviors of Chinese tourism researchers from foreign language sources.

The book will be of great interest to academic researchers, graduate students, policy makers, and destination managers who are interested in China tourism. The varied aspects covered, together with the engaging writing style, makes the text a pleasure to read.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research.