Since the introduction of China's Open Door and Reforms Policy in the late 1970s, this most populous nation has undergone significant reforms which have had an enormous impact on its society, driving social changes in a profound and extensive way. As an exploratory study, this research proposes that there is a close relationship between social change and travel development in China where travel decision-making is more influenced by social change (external factors) rather than by their own psychological desire (internal factors). The effect of this proposition is manifested in the development of China's outbound travel market over the past two decades. Unlike many other existing literature, this research has chosen to investigate "outbound travel", a form of consumption, against a complicated socio-economic background, rather than taking the consumption boom and the rapid growth of the outbound travel market at face value. While acknowledging the limitations of the study, the researcher believes that the findings would make a significant contribution to existing knowledge, as well as highlighting future research opportunities for cross-disciplinary study.
