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This paper aims to explore the accommodation experience of customers in the budget hotel sector – a less explored but rapidly expanding sector in the hospitality industry. This study investigates the effects of such experience on customer behavior.

The study adopts a quantitative approach and draws on a comprehensive data set (N = 414) by using a quota sampling approach. The context of the study is the Chinese market, where budget hotels and the number of mass tourists (inbound and outbound) have increased tremendously.

This study identifies a behavioral pattern that differs from trends reported in prior studies. The finding shows that the relationship between customer experience and behavioral intentions is mediated by customer satisfaction, which similarly mediates the relationship between perceived value and behavioral intentions.

The results provide significant implications for hoteliers in the budget hotel industry by calling for a differentiated marketing approach for this segment of customers. Furthermore, the study provides insights into the accommodation behavior of Chinese mass tourists. These findings can serve as reference for international budget hotel practitioners, especially those involved in hotels that target the increasing number of travelers from China.

The budget hotel sector is the first accommodation choice for many Chinese mass tourists. This study is the first to conduct a systematic exploration of the behavioral patterns of customers toward budget hotels in this context. Moreover, this study adopts a holistic approach by adopting an experiential view in measuring the overall experience of customers in budget hotels.

There are many human resource challenges facing China's hotel and tourism industry. The key issues are: the lack of qualified staff at both operational and managerial levels, high staff turnover rates, the unwillingness of university graduates to enter the industry, and the gap between what is taught in school and college and the realities of the industry itself. The aim here is to explore these issues by interviewing industry executives and academics and via the authors' own experiences of teaching and research in China. It is hoped that these issues will be noted by the Chinese government and by industry leaders, and academics, as it will take a collaborative effort to address them.

Examines tourism policy implementation in Chinese tourism enterprises. In general, all tourism enterprises indicated that economic‐oriented tourism policies implemented promoted the development of tourism in China since the adoption of economic reform and open‐door policy in 1978. Chinese tourism policies have established a legal framework for the administration, management and operation of tourism enterprises. This framework has covered almost all aspects of tourism industry. However, Chinese tourism enterprises also found difficulties in implementing some policies and regulations. Some regulations are too strict and do not allow the tourism enterprises to implement in accordance with their real circumstance. The study also suggests that tourism policy implementation in China has two different patterns in two different kinds of tourism enterprises. Further argues that tourism policy implementation in China is a “top‐down” and “trial and error‐correcting” model. These findings provide the important implications in studying the political dimensions of tourism, including tourism politics and tourism policy‐making process, particularly in the context of socialist countries.

From a closed country in which tourism was virtually unknown, China has become a major player in the international tourism market since the country opened its doors to the outside world in 1978. Because of the constant increase in international and domestic tourism in China, provincial tourism planning has become a widely discussed topic in recent years. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to address the human resources‐planning issues in the development of provincial tourism in China, using Heilongjiang as a case study.

This research aims to extend knowledge pertaining to SMEs in general within the context of the tourism industry, and to establish a richer understanding relative to major factors affecting the development of SME travel agents in China.

In a pilot research project, exploratory in‐depth interviews were conducted with owner‐managers of SME travel agencies.

The findings indicate that being small in size and simple structure, short period of time in business operation, lack of management experience and market recognition have formed the major characteristics of these SMEs. Furthermore, they are facing an increasingly competitive environment and their sustainability is being threatened by a continuously decreasing market share and reducing profit levels.

A total of nine in‐depth interviews were conducted and the results cannot be generalized to the whole travel agent sector in China.

The research results also indicate that a series of internal and external factors are affecting the development of SME travel agents in China. Co‐operative and collaborative networking is recommended designed to strengthen SME travel agency business models.

SME travel agents have a very short development history in China and very little is known about the nature of the SMEs. This study intends to provide enhanced understanding of the SMEs which can serve as the base for future study.

This paper aims to explore the current situation of career management in China's state‐owned hotels and to delve into employees' perceptions of such activities.

To obtain a comprehensive view of the career management situation, three qualitative research methods were applied in the study, namely, case study, focus groups, and in‐depth interviews. The results were combined to provide a better insight into career management activities in China and employees' perceptions of these activities. Based on the data collected, career management practices in China's hotel industry are grouped into four dimensions: assessment tools, career development information, professional training, and promotion system.

The findings of the study reveal that not all Western career management activities are being practised in China's hotels. The results of the qualitative research methods also reveal several career management techniques with Chinese characteristics. Although career management plays an important role in human resources management, there is a gap between hotel career management and employees' career needs. To obtain the best result, it is necessary to find a match between the requirements of the hotel and the aspirations of the individual employee.

Based on the data collected, recommendations and directions on career management practices are established and given to state‐owned hotels management. By developing the four dimensions of career management activities, the paper generates important references and suggestions for further study in the area of employees' career development.

For both hotel operators and hotel employees, the paper is the first attempt to provide comprehensive information concerning China's hotel career management. The development of the four career management dimensions may serve as a basis for future study.

This study attempts to demystify the mechanism behind the negative event of the so‐called “zero‐commission” tours that have become synonymous with the booming Chinese outbound tourism in the past decade.

Utilizing the Atlas.ti computer qualitative analysis software, nine proposed key factors constituting the zero‐tour phenomenon are examined and proven through a content analysis of 30 case studies.

The validity of the proposed nine factors causing the zero‐tour and their respective degrees of relevance to the phenomenon are also investigated and empirically tested in the study.

The study used the cases from destinations such as Hong Kong and Thailand. It will be better if cases from other destinations such as Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, and Australia can be examined in future studies since the zero‐tour phenomenon also exists in other countries.

This study may serve as a reference for the drafting and implementation of both policy and business countermeasures to curb the zero‐commission tours. Consequently, this would facilitate more positive contributions of the Chinese outbound tourism industry to global tourism development.

No empirical study on the zero‐tour phenomenon was found in the literature. Based on the game theory, the proposed and empirically tested nine factors can serve as the foundation on which future studies on the zero‐commission tour can be conducted.

China’s tourism and hotel education at tertiary level started in the late 1970s. A lack of qualified tourism educators and employees is a common concern for all levels of Chinese tourism education. Further education and training for the faculty in institutions has become an urgent need for the Chinese government and the institutions themselves. The purposes of this study are to examine the education needs of tourism academics in terms of their perception of the value of upgrading their qualifications, the likelihood of further studies, levels of attainment, preference of study places and possible barriers; to understand the degree of importance of upgrading their qualifications; and to identify the main tourism training and education issues facing China in the twenty‐first century. The results suggest that the Chinese academics perceive upgrading their qualifications and getting more exposure to the outside world as important to them. The training and education issues facing China in the twenty‐first century are improvement of the tourism education system and its structure, improvement in the design of the syllabuses with more language training and the balance of theory and practice, change from a traditional teaching mode to a more modernized innovative and interactive teaching mode, and greater responsiveness of education to the needs of the industry.

China's travel agent industry started becoming a service industry after China opened its doors to the outside world in 1978. During the process of economic reform and marketization, the industry has become much more mature than 25 years ago. With China's accession to World Tourism Organization, the travel service industry will open its market for competition between foreign travel agents and the ones in China. Through studying and investigating the developing history and the current operating condition of the travel agents, this paper analyzes opportunities and challenges facing China's travel agents upon China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Seeks to report and analyze the impacts of the Asian tsunami on China's outbound tourism.

Uses industry data to assess the impact of tourism from China to the affected region.

The tsunami has caused a redistribution of outbound tourists and stimulated a rapid increase in some other outbound and domestic destinations.

The tsunami itself had both direct and indirect effects. South and Southeast Asia has lost tourism revenues from China and is now perceived as a high‐risk region by Chinese tourists.

Uses recently available industry data to assess the impact of the tsunami on Chinese outbound tourism.