By Hu Jiangyun, Research Team on “Strategic Study on Enhancing the Competitiveness of China’s Service Trade”, Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations, DRC

Research Report, No.189, 2019 (Total 5689)

2019-10-25

Abstract: International organizations clearly distinguish travel service from tourism service, the connotations and denotations of which are quite different, and so are their modes of operation. Generally speaking, domestic research mainly focuses on the study of tourism service. China is a major trading country in travel service, ranking second in the world with a trade volume of $293.6 billion in 2017, among which China ranks first and fifth respectively for import and export. According to the competitiveness index system of trade in travel service, China’s index continues to decline, which is manifested in the change of travel service trade volume from surplus to deficit, with the deficit reaching $216 billion in 2017. The export market share, trade competitiveness index, revealed comparative advantage index and comparative advantage index all show a downward trend performance. China enjoys some comparative advantages and needs to implement comprehensive measures in an all-round way, such as further opening up the travel service, improving protection of intellectual property rights, enhancing overseas risk awareness, strengthening overall planning of travel resources, improving the quality of travel-related services and boosting the international competitiveness of travel service.

Key words: travel service, competitiveness, advantage and disadvantage, connotations and extension