China's international tourism development: Present and future

International tourism as an industry is the outcome of China's economic reform and open policy to the outside world initiated in the late 1970s, and it has become one of the important foreign exchange earners, playing an increasingly significant role in the country's national economy. The paper explains the main stages of its development and identifies the important changes in the past two decades. It analyzes the opportunities and challenges with which China's international tourism is confronted, and further suggests the choices of policies and strategies China should undertake for its international tourism development in the new millennium and on the threshold of joining the World Trade Organization.