Tourism policy implementation in mainland China: an enterprise perspective

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.