During the early twentieth century, the pressure to provide formalised paid leave for all employees gained momentum through social and trades union movements internationally. In the years between the World Wars (1919–1939), trade unions in some industry sectors successfully negotiated paid leave for their members. In the UK in 1929, all workers in state-owned industries became entitled to paid leave, and by 1937, annual paid leave for all workers was available in 24 countries including Finland, France, the USSR, Chile, Venezuela and Norway (Dawson, 2007).

In the UK, paid leave for all full-time workers was introduced in 1938, although some salaried, white-collar jobs had already been granted paid leave entitlement for almost 100 years. The UK legislation of 1938 increased the right to paid leave to between 18 and 19 million additional workers, and substantially increased the levels of leisure time enjoyed by UK residents. The level of paid leave entitlement in any country is therefore potentially very significant as an enabling factor for tourist activity.

The UK has been an important generating region for several decades. Many years of economic growth, low unemployment rates and low borrowing rates encouraged UK residents to spend on tourism. In 2005, UK residents were the third highest spending outbound tourist market (Mintel, 2005).

In 2008, UK residents took 69 million trips outside the UK: 45.5 million trips were for holidays and 8.9 million for business and professional purposes (ONS, 2010, cited in Gill, 2010).

The global economic collapse that began in 2007 has had a far-reaching effect on demand for tourism. Figures on outbound tourism from the UK show consistent falls in demand that had not recovered by 2010. In 2009, outbound trips by UK residents fell by 15 per cent compared to 2008, the largest decline since the 1970s. Outbound trips for business and professional purposes saw the highest decline with a 23 per cent drop from 8.9 million to 6.9 million.

Spain and France were the most popular destinations for UK outbound visitors and although they received 21.3 million visits from UK residents in 2009, this was lower than in previous years.

In 1841 Thomas Cook, a cabinet maker living in the English midlands, began organising day trips by rail for his fellow Temperance Society members. He made no profit from these trips but recognised their commercial potential: by chartering a whole train, he could sell tickets at lower prices than an individual would pay directly to rail companies.

In 1845 he began organising domestic trips by rail commercially and expanded his programme to include outbound group ‘Cook’s Tours’ to Europe in 1855, to America in 1866, and in 1869 to Egypt and Palestine. In 1872, he launched annual round-the-world tours using steam ships across the Atlantic, the new US railway network, ships across to Asia and the newly-opened Suez Canal. These pre-arranged group tours were sold at an inclusive price and led by an experienced tour leader.

Thomas Cook is credited with two major developments:

1. The inclusive tour – removing the complexity and reducing the risk for tourists by organising the whole trip.
2. Two administrative systems that simplified travel:

• hotel vouchers – that are presented at hotels in lieu of payment
• the Cook’s Circular Note – an early form of travellers cheque so tourists could avoid carrying large amounts of cash.

Source: Thomas Cook Group PLC (2008)

Until relatively recently, Chinese citizens did not undertake tourism as a leisure activity. Maoist ideology saw leisure tourism as the product of a bourgeois society and did not permit it (Zhang, 2003: 15, cited in Nyiri, 2006: 3). After the early 1980s, outbound tourism from China was permitted for business or VFR purposes but government approval was required for each trip (Nyiri, 2006). Tourism for holidays, recreation or leisure was considered to be an activity that was only undertaken by Westerners, who began visiting China after Mao’s death in 1978 (Nyiri, 2006).

When Maoist ideology started to be reformed, government attitudes to tourism changed. In 1985, the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNTA), which had previously focused on attracting inbound tourism, created a domestic travel department. Its first plan relating to the development of domestic tourism was approved in 1993 (Li, 2007).

Around the same time incomes in urban areas were increasing, and in 1995 the working week was reduced to five days. In 1996 the CNTA celebrated the ‘Year of Leisure and Vacation’, and in 1997, the development of domestic tourism became a policy priority. In 1999, the number of public holidays was increased by the government from eight to 10, creating three ‘golden weeks’ when businesses would close down: China National Day on 1 October, May Day on 1 May, and the Lunar Festival in Spring.

The emergence of enabling factors in China in the mid to late 1990s created rapid growth in tourist demand amongst the urban consumer class. In 1997 the government officially recognised outbound leisure tourism and introduced the ‘Provisional Regulation of the Management of Outbound Travel by Chinese Citizens at their own expense’.

Outbound travel regulations required countries seeking to attract Chinese leisure tourists to enter into bilateral tourism agreements, known as Approved Destination Status (ADS), with the Chinese government (Li, 2007). Within five years, 20 ADS agreements had been established; by the end of 2008, 134 ADS agreements had been set up, including in 2008 the USA. Chinese leisure tourists cannot travel to countries that do not have ADS.

At first, visa regulations required Chinese outbound tourists to travel on organised group tours (with a minimum of five people) operated by approved tour operators and sold through CNTA-approved travel agencies. However, the demand for independent travel is now one of the strongest trends in outbound travel (VisitBritain, 2010c). Chinese outbound tourists are granted visas to travel independently if they can demonstrate that they have financial means, that they will return to China at the end of the trip, and that they are able to maintain themselves during the trip through their adequacy in the destination’s language and reservations for accommodation (VisitBritain, 2010c).

China is potentially the largest generating region in the world; the UNWTO predicts three times the global average growth rates in outbound travel. Growth in demand for outbound group tours has been immense – CNTA statistics (in Li, 2007) show that in 2005, 6.79 million Chinese tourists travelled on group tours and in 2006, 8.43 million. In total, in 2006, 34.5 million Chinese tourists travelled outbound, including business, conference, VFR and educational tourists.

Reflective Questions

1. Consider the role of the Chinese government in stimulating the demand for outbound travel. Do other national governments adopt a similar function in international tourism?
2. Why would destination regions be keen to enter into ADS agreements with the Chinese government?