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The China travel industry is growing rapidly and is expected to grow even more in the next 15 years. Another segment of the population that is increasing is individuals with physical disabilities. China has enacted several laws to enhance the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and to make travel more accessible. Although individuals with physical disabilities travel less than those without disabilities, the potential market is expanding. If travellers with physical disabilities encounter few barriers during their travels, they may travel even more in the future. This study examined four tourism industry sectors in China in terms of the accessibility and attitudinal barriers that participants with physical disabilities encountered. The four sectors were transportation, accommodations, eating–drinking establishments and attractions. Furthermore, comparisons were conducted on the participants' functioning level, income and types of mobility assistive devices they used. Results suggested that participants' functioning level was an appropriate indicator of the amount of barriers they encountered while travelling. Conversely, the amount of barriers encountered by the participants was not predicated by their income or the type of devices they used. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies in tourism have shown that people from individualist cultures have different perceptions of service quality than those from collectivistic cultures. Triandis (1995) insists that attitudinal and behavioral differences also exist on an individual level within the same culture. He added the horizontal/vertical dimensions to the individualism/collectivism dimensions, thus four cultural tendencies occurs within a society: horizontal individualism/collectivism and vertical individualism/collectivism. This study examined the association between individuals' cultural tendencies and their perceptions of service quality of a Chinese travel agency within the same culture. A total of 346 participants of group tours were surveyed in 2004. Results of the canonical correlation analysis indicated that customers of the Chinese travel agencies were more horizontal than vertical and more collectivistic than individualistic. The horizontal individualistic/collectivistic tendencies had a positive correlation with all dimensions of the agency's service quality. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experienced tremendous growth as an international travel destination and the growth is expected to continue over the next 20 years. US tour operators focusing on tours to China are in an increasingly promising market but successfully marketing their products challenged the financial resources of operators until the advent of the Internet. The Internet now offers tour operators an effective and cost saving method for promoting tours to China. To gain insight into how US tour operators focusing on tours to China are embracing the Internet, the researchers evaluated Web sites of 20 tour operators. Results indicated that the content delivery performance of the Web sites was low, meaning Web sites did not include important features necessary for operators to remain viable in such a competitive market. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]