The Chinese travel market has a very special structure. It is not separated in some full service tour operators like in Europe. China has over 14.000 different tour operators which are more or less travel agencies as well. Of course there are big companies like CTS (China Travel Service), CITS (China International Travel Service) and CYTS (China Youth Travel Service) which are the main players in Chinas travel industry. The most important differentiation is the fact, if the tour operator has a licence to handle outbound tourists.
The following list is the first summary of authorised outbound tour operators in big cities in China from the CNTA in 2000:
| Province/municipality | Agency |
| National | China Comfort Travel Head Office |
| CITS Head Office | |
| CTS Head Office | |
| CYTS Head Office | |
| China Merchants InternationalTravel | |
| China Women Travel Service | |
| Beijing | Beijing Tourism Group* |
| Beijing North Star InternationalTC | |
| China Peace ITC | |
| Guangdong | Guangdong OTC |
| Guangdong CTS | |
| Shantou TC | |
| Shenzhen TC | |
| Guangzhou TC | |
| Zhuhai Travel DevelopmentCorporation | |
| Shanghai | Shanghai CITS |
| Shanghai CTS | |
| Shanghai CYTS | |
| Shanghai Jinjiang Tours Ltd | |
| Huating OTC |
