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Two-hundred and fifty-seven research articles on China tourism published between 1979 and 2015 in four leading international tourism journals (i.e. Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Management) were reviewed to delineate the status of China tourism research and indicate areas for future academic inquiry. The most common research themes within the body of literature reviewed were identified as tourist behavior, tourism governance and policy issues as well as tourism economics. Methodologically, a balanced distribution of research methods was identified. This review examines the relationship between authorship and fieldwork, and its impact on research interpretations. This review paper calls for more rigorous fieldwork reflecting genuine observations of tourism development and the relevant sociocultural and political developments in transitional China.
Bao et al. (Tue,) studied this question.