Tourism History Research: A Glimpse Into the English and Chinese Literature

The aim of this article is to offer an overview of tourism history studies conducted in English and Chinese. The article analyzes three main issues-research themes, source materials, and data analysis methods-for a contrast of literatures in the two languages. No essential difference in the respects of sources and themes is reported because the variances in the two aspects can be accepted as a given. The methods for analyzing source materials, however, are somewhat different in the two cohorts of tourism history research. Based on the analysis of existing literature, the authors have made some concluding comments on the following issues: choice of themes, search for source materials, determination of research scope, and analysis of source materials. The article also points out the implications of English literature on Chinese tourism history research.