【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ion Chinese aged 60 and over (Mao amp。 Song, 2021, p. 92). Why then do the Chinese seniors not attract the deserved attention of the country‘s tourism industry? Do the principles of the market economy go astray? The authors posit that, other than the effects of prevailing revenue models of tourism businesses such as tour operators, the reluctance to serve the seniors, and the failure to serve them well, stem from the unknown. Although various aspects of senior tourism have been discussed in the literature (., Backman, Backman, Silverberg, 1999。 Cleaver, Muller, Ruys, amp。 Wei, 1999。 Fleischer amp。 Pizam, 2021。 Hsu, 1999。 Romsa amp。 Blenman, 1989), knowledge is scarce about why Chinese seniors choose to engage in leisure travel, and what their unique travel needs and preferences are. In a recent study, Jang and Wu (2021) examined travel motivation of Taiwanese seniors. Applying the wellknown model of push and pull motivation factors, they developed a survey instrument. Their questions were based on the extant studies of travel motivations of seniors in developed societies. The data were collected from 353 Taiwanese seniors attending continuing education classes in Taiwan. Among other questions, these respondents were asked to indicate the level of importance of 35 items of travel motivation. The factor analysis of the survey data resulted in the findings of five push and three pull motivation factors. The push factors included egoenhancement, selfesteem, knowledgeseeking, relaxation, and socialization. The pull factors were cleanliness and safety。 facilities, event, and cost。 and natural and historical sight. In another study on senior traveler behavior in Taiwan, Huang and Tsai (2021) presented 12 ―traveling motivation characteristics‖ of Taiwanese seniors participating in all inclusive package tours. Their findings included 12 motivation characteristics ranked by the percentage of respondents。 however, the authors did not specify how the 12 characteristics were identified. According to the authors, the three most important motivation characteristics for Taiwan seniors were those reported by 10 percent or more of the 284 respondents. They were ―get rest and relaxation,‖ ―meet people and socialization,‖ and ―spend time with immediate family.‖ The least important characteristics were reported by one respondent or percent of the sample. They were ―tell your friends about your trip‖ and ―engage in physical activities.‖ The authors concluded that there are no differences between Taiwan and American senior travelers‖ in motivation, because their findings were similar to those by Guinn (1980) and Anderson and Langmeyer (1982). The parison was unfortunately inappropriate, and the conclusion unsubstantiated. Guinn‘s study examined motivations of elderly recreational vehicle tourists in Texas, and found that their motivations ―included rest and relaxation, social interaction, physical exercise, learning, excitement and nostalgia (Guinn, 1980 in Huang amp。 Tsai, 2021).‖ Anderson and Langmeyer pared the profiles of people under and above 50 years old, and found that ―over 50 years old travelers tended to travel for rest and relaxation or to visit relatives and preferred to visit historical sites (Anderson amp。 Langmeyer, 1982 in Huang amp。 Tsai, 2021).‖ Models of travel motivations such as the typology of push and pull factors were developed using samples from the developed societies and in western cultures. There have been successful attempts to apply these models to the populations in nonwestern cultures but developed societies such as Taiwan (Jang amp。 Wu, 2021) and Japan (Cai amp。 Combrink, 2021。 Cha, McCleary, amp。 Uysal, 1995). However, the application of ―western‖ models by posing closended questions to nonwestern respondents may deprive them of the opportunity to express their travel motivations that are alien to the western populations but unique to the nonwestern societies. China is a nonwestern society and a developing country as well. To the extent that the western models of travel motivations may or may not be applicable and empirical findings from developed societies may or may not be relevant to the Chinese context, this study takes a different approach. Instead of applying travel motivation models conceptualized in the developed western societies, the study aims to set up a theoretical model through an intense scrutiny of textual data collected from indepth and freeflow interviews with 27 Chinese seniors. The study first presents an array of basic psychological theories on aging and motivation as the foundation to understand the aging phenomenon in relation to China‘s tourism. Adopting the grounded theory approach, the study then proposes a model of motivations for senior tourism in China. Further, the study puts forward eight propositions, each of which is discussed in reference to extant tourism literature on motivations. Chinese senior tourism motivation The study of motivation is to ask the ―why‖ of actions. It is an attempt to eventually influence one‘s behavior。 and ―from many perspectives, it is an effort to minimize disfort a hallmark of modern societies is the effort to improve people‘s lives, including the debilities of advanced age‖ (Furchtgott amp。 Furchtgott, 1999, p. 2). The attempt to understand the ―why‖ of senior tourism in China is precisely a part of the effort to influence seniors‘ behaviors with the goal to improve the quality of their lives through leisure travel. The idea of successful aging or aging well has been embraced in many developed economies, but has only begun to gain attention in developing countries. By 2025 over twothirds of those 65 years and over will be living in the developing world, and the growth rate of the elderly population in developing countries will range between 106% and 174% as pared to developed countr