Abstract
As a probing inquiry, this study aims to inquire into the national tourism policy-making process in China post 1978 under the transition and transformation from the planned economy to the market economy, through applying the conceptual framework 'Ideational Based Inter-relationships Framework of the Factors Affecting the Tourism Policy-Making Process' designed for this study. This study originated from the theoretical inquiry regarding the extant tourism policy literature. The tourism policy-making process has not been well conceptualized; the factors affecting the tourism policy-making are not sufficiently and adequately incorporated into the existing tourism policy-making model. Furthermore, the dimension of the inter-relationships of policy factors influencing the tourism policy-making, which is viewed by this study as the inherent and underlying causalities, has not been well explored. Furthermore, the ideational dimension of the tourism policy-making process, which is considered by this study as the centrality among the factors, has also not well been addressed in the tourism policy-making studies. Based on the existing literature, a conceptual framework 'Ideational Based Inter-relationships Framework of the Factors Affecting the Tourism Policy-Making Process' has been developed to understand tourism policy development and change through exploring the inter-relationships of policy factors in driving the tourism policy-making. The context of national tourism policy-making in China post was selected as a case to examine the appropriateness and relevancy of the conceptual framework due to its empirical significance and uniqueness. National tourism policy-making in China post 1978 has been influenced by the interactive coalescence of various policy factors that manifest through the policy-oriented learning and coordination undertaken by the different policy actors in the central government. Among all the policy factors, tourism policy paradigm stands at the heart. The formation and evolution of the tourism policy paradigm have undergone through three distinctive historical periods in accordance with the evolution of the Chinese ideological orthodoxies. On this basis, some twelve propositions in relation to the specific relationships or significant causalities of policy factors affecting China's national tourism policy are proposed. These propositions are viewed by this study as the inherent causalities in driving the national tourism policy-making in China. Based on China's context, the conceptual framework designed for this study is considered as appropriate in understanding tourism policy-making at the national level. Regarding the limitations, the conceptual framework designed could only be regarded as a further work on the basis of the existing tourism policy-making literature, envisaging that the tourism policy-making process and the concept of inter-relationships are extremely complex. The uniqueness of China's context also restricts the generalization of twelve propositions derived out.