Abstract With the rapid growth of income of residents, continued warming tourism demand in China, some experts and scholars put forward a new concept of "tourism Engel coefficient" based on the Engel coefficient. They try to discuss and measure that income increase is positively related with tourism demand. However, the definition and connation of the "tourism Engel coefficient" raised by Sun, Liu etc. is against the original intention of the Engel coefficient and cannot be well logically explained. From the perspective of the concept of the Engel's Law and Engel coefficient, a whole new understanding of tourism Engel coefficient is provided in the paper based on tourism economics theory:the tourism Engel coefficient is the proportion of tourists' total travel expenditure that is spent on food, shelter, and other necessities during their trip. The practicability and applicability of the Engel coefficient and the tourism Engel coefficient were discussed and some points of view for improper understanding of tourism Engel coefficient were criticized as well. Based on the time-series data from 2004 to 2013 China's inbound tourists' consumption structure, some statistical analysis were carried out by using the tourism Engel coefficient. A preliminary study of the coefficient's application is also presented. It indicates that "tourism Engel coefficient" defined in this paper can be used to measure the maturity of the tourist market, tourist destination development level and tourism economic structure.
2016, Vol. 31 
