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The Chinese outbound travel market has been one of the fastest-growing international markets for destinations, with Chinese tourist arrivals grown from 10 million to 83 million from 2000 to 2012 and their expenditures abroad reaching US102 billion in 2012 to position China as the world’s largest tourism source market in spending (CTA, 2012; UNWTO, 2013). Investigations into how Chinese tourists behave in comparison to their Western counterparts will have tremendous potential for developing insights into tourism literature, especially if previously developed Western theoretical models can interpret Chinese tourist behaviour. Practically, a better understanding of the Chinese outbound tourism phenomenon benefits destinations, which seek to effectively promote economic and social development associated with the ever-growing Chinese outbound market. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic, quantitative review of 118 articles published in 15 top tourism and hospitality journals between 2000 and 2012 to determine the status of research on Chinese outbound tourism. This study adopted a hybrid design that incorporated the characteristics of both the narrative and systematic quantitative review methods. The review outlines current achievements and future directions for Chinese outbound tourism research, and is pertinent to both theory building and professional practice. Based on Weaver and Lawton’s (2009) model of multi-disciplinary linkages, the 118 articles were classified into: psychology (38 articles), marketing (33), business management (16), economics (6), history (4), sociology (3), political science (1), and others (17). Credit shall be given to research efforts manifested in several areas such as travel motivation, expectations, travel barriers, destination image and preference, market segmentation and business management issues. However, much of existing literature focuses on one specific domain of sustainability – economic, reflecting an initial excitement about the development potential of this market, promoting it as an ideal source for economic growth at the destinations. The majority of studies are within the positivistic/post-positivistic paradigm. Few studies take a platform beyond advocacy to dialectically evaluate Chinese outbound tourism phenomena and impacts. In general, these studies applied existing theories to the Chinese market but fall short of making a significant breakthrough beyond the widely adopted Western models. As such, knowledge generated is to some extent fragmented and context-confined. Long-term strategic development requires recognition of the complexity and reality of the Chinese outbound tourism phenomenon as well as a need for sustainable and responsible development. In response, research needs to move toward the sustainable, knowledge-based and ethics platforms that adopt a holistic view of tourism as an integrated and interdependent system.
