The Effect of Face Concerns on University Students' Leisure Travel: A Cross-Cultural Comparison (Report‪)‬

"A person needs face (Lian) like a tree needs bark [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]."--Traditional Chinese saying Tourism has become one of the most dynamic sectors of the Chinese economy. For example, in 2008, 1.7 billion domestic trips accounted for 875 billion RMB (129 billion USD), while 46 million Chinese tourists traveled internationally, an increase of 11.9% from 2007 (National Tourism Administration of the People's Republic of China, 2009). Moreover, the latter number is expected to double, with the WTO (cited in Li, Harrill, Uysal, Burnett, & Zhan, 2010) estimating there will be 100 million outbound Chinese tourists by 2020. Not surprisingly, given the current and future size of this market, American (U.S. Travel Association, 2008) and Canadian (Canadian Tourism Commission, 2009) tourism authorities have become increasingly interested in attracting Chinese tourists.