Over the last decade, the rapid development of Chinese outbound tourism has drawn increasing attention and interest from both academia and the industry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, China was placed fourth in terms of international visitors. In 2019, there were 83 million visitors, not including mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong and Macao (UNWTO, 2020). Accompanying this were the rapid changes in the Chinese outbound tourism market that developed due to China’s technological advancement and economic growth, as well as the Chinese government’s global development strategies. For example, the launch of the ‘Year of Tourism’initiatives in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has provided opportunities and challenges for the industry in these destinations. The most recent COVID-19 pandemic combined with political tensions has been creating further uncertainties around the future of Chinese outbound tourism. Such rapid changes call for new research evidence to advance the understanding and knowledge around Chinese outbound tourism. This special issue of the Journal of China Tourism Research seeks to address these new developments by focusing on the identification of emerging issues in the Chinese outbound tourism market.