6. Limitations and future research
First, the samples in this study did not perfectly represent the Chinese population. Despite the use of both an internet survey and a traditional questionnaire, access to internet and the questionnaire distribution are still limited, resulting in some mismatching of demographic variables, including location and age distribution. For example, our study focused on urban populations, and little attention was paid to the effect of China's urban and rural binary structure, and the resulting differences in travel. In addition, the FCG sample was relatively small. So more caution should be taken in future studies to achieve a more balanced sample. Second, the study offers insight into the general travel mindset of Chinese tourists at this point in time, based on the idea that each generation maintains lifelong travel behaviors. However, it is still uncertain whether the behaviors of a generation persist, or if they change with age and life stage. For example, will the LG care more about health issues and choose filling-time activities when they are in the same life phase as the present FCG? Or when the ROG steps into its pre-retirement time as the LG, will they travel for the true meaning of life instead of just achieving a work-life balance? For this reason, follow-up studies are required to distinguish generational influences from age and period. Specially, the longitudinal data monitoring with shorter time interval is need to find out whether, and when, there is an inflection point.
