Tourism Mobilities through Time in China: A Developmental and Holistic Lens

Abstract

Under the mobilities paradigm, a lens of tourism mobilities extends the scope of tourism studies in ontology and phenomenology. The observation of some limitations in the extant tourism mobilities literature leads to the design of a study to investigate the changing nature of tourism mobilities in a society from all three aspects of the phenomenon (i.e., movement, representation, and practice). Based on the principles of weak constructionism, this study adopted means of biographical grid in-depth interviews—a retrospective longitudinal mode of data collection—and biographic analytical framework to analyze and to chronicle mobilities in China. The findings offer a longitudinal (1950–present) and context-specific account of the evolving nature of tourism mobilities and their interrelationship with the macro-environment. This study enriches the conceptualization of tourism mobilities by providing empirical evidence for the developmental and holistic nature of tourism mobilities in China.