Progress in Chinese hotel research: A review of SSCI-listed journals

•Publications on Chinese hotel research in SSCI-listed journals from 2003 to 2013 are reviewed and synthesized.•Trends of publications, journals, authorship information and methods are shown.•The differences between Chinese and international hotel research foci are compared and the gap between existing research efforts and industry reality are identified.•Possible directions for future research are presented.

As China becomes a major market in the global hotel industry, a growing number of research studies related to Chinese hotel have recently been published in leading journals. Based on the existing reviews, this study aims to review Chinese hotel research from a different perspective. This is the first study to review publications on Chinese hotel studies which were published in the listed journals of Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). A systematic approach was used to analyze 93 articles, and a large increase in Chinese hotel research was observed in the most recent five years (2009–2013). The findings of the most popular publication channels, as well as those of the most active scholars and institutions in this field, are presented to provide valuable information for academic stakeholders. On the basis of the research foci analysis, the gaps between research and industry were identified, which indicated trends and future research priorities.