1st Edition

Asia on Tour Exploring the rise of Asian tourism

Edited By Tim Winter, Peggy Teo, T.C. Chang Copyright 2009
    376 Pages 43 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    376 Pages 43 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    With the vast majority of academic theory on tourism based on ‘Western’ tourists, Asia on Tour illustrates why the rapid growth of travel for leisure and recreation in Asia demands a reappraisal of how tourism is analyzed and understood. Examining domestic and intra-regional tourism, the book reveals how improvements in infrastructures, ever increasing disposable incomes, liberalized economies, the inter-connectivities of globalization and the lowering of borders, both physical and political, are now enabling millions of Asians to travel as tourists. Drawing upon multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and up-to-date empirical research, the twenty-three accessible essays in this volume indicate why a rigorous and critical study of Asian tourism must become integral to both our analysis of this rapidly transforming region and our interpretation of global tourism in the twenty first century.

    As a rich collection of essays on heritage and tourism oriented around Asian tourists, Asia on Tour will be of particular interest to students and scholars working in the fields of tourism, Asian studies, geography, heritage, anthropology, development, sociology, and cultural and postcolonial studies.

    Introduction: Rethinking Tourism in Asia, Tim Winter, Peggy Teo and T.C. Chang  Part One: Challenging Conventions  1. 'A long and still-unfinished story': constructing and defining Asian regionalisms, C. Michael Hall  2. Knowledge Order in Asia, Peggy Teo  3. Destination Asia: rethinking material culture, Tim Winter  4. Disorganized Tourism Space: Chinese tourists in an age of Asian tourism, Chan Yuk Wah  Part Two: Emerging Markets, (Re)scripting Places  5. Singapore’s Postcolonial Landscape: boutique hotels as agents, Peggy Teo and T.C. Chang   6. The Rebirth of the Hospital: heterotopia and medical tourism in Asia. Audrey Bochaton and Bertrand LeFebvre  7. Affective Sites: Hur Jin-Ho’s cinema and film-induced tourism in Korea. Youngmin Choe  8. Affinity Tourism: a case study of Indian tourists in Bali K. Thirumaran  9. Ayurvedic Tourism in Kerala: local identities and global markets, Denise Spitzer  Part Three: National Imaginings and Tourism Development  10. Between encouragement and control: tourism, modernity and discipline in China, Pál Nyíri  11. Tourism as Glitter: re-examining domestic tourism in Indonesia, Maribeth Erb  12. Openings and Limits: domestic tourism in Japan, Nelson Graburn  13. Disruptions of a dialectic and a stereotypical response: the case of the Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, tourism industry, Jamie Gillen  14. The Internal Expansion of China: tourism and the production of distance, Jenny Chio  Part Four: Revis(it)ing Heritage: dissonance or harmony?  15. From the centre to the margin: tourism and conflict in Kashmir, Shalini Panjabi  16. Staging the Nation, Exploring the Margins: domestic tourism and its political implications in northern Thailand, Olivier Evrard and Prasit Leepreecha  17. Cultural Preservation, Tourism, and ‘Donkey Travel’ on China’s Frontier, Robert Shepherd  18. Gastronomy and Tourism: a case study of gourmet country-style cuisine in Hong Kong, Sidney C. H. Cheung  Part Five: Tourism and New Social Networks  19. ‘My Mother’s Best Friend’s Sister-in-law is Coming with Us’: domestic and international travels with a group of Lao tourists, Charles Carroll  20. ‘Donkey Friends’ in China: the internet, civil society and the emergence of the Chinese backpacking community, Francis Khek Gee Lim  21.  Still Vision and Mobile Youth: tourist photos, travel narratives and Taiwanese modernity, Joyce Hsiu-yen Yeh  22. Conclusion: Recasting tourism theory, towards an Asian future, Tim Winter

     

    Biography

    Tim Winter is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Western Australia. He is author of Post-Conflict Heritage, Postcolonial Tourism and editor of Expressions of Cambodia. Peggy Teo is an independent scholar based in Singapore. Her research interests are in tourism and social gerontological issues. TC Chang is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore.

    'Asia on Tour is a valuable addition to the slowly growing discourse on non-Western tourist behaviour. It does so by highlighting the interactions between Asian tourism cultures, which are played out according to the cultural backgrounds of the participants. Included are a large number of well-researched examples, which are analysed using the common insight that the tourist of MacCannell and Urry is in fact a Western tourist.' - Wolfgang Georg Arlt, Journal of Heritage Tourism, Vol. 4, November 2009

    'This volume provides a lot of thoughtprovoking insight into contemporary issues that not only affect the individual countries and communities that the chapters focus on, but also could be extended comparatively to other Asian countries and regions as well. As such, the book serves as both a useful reference and a guide to tourism in and of Asia today.'
    Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol. 31, No.2, July 2010

    "The book is to be welcomed as a contribution to the growing works about Asian tourism and is generally free from the dry statistics on the growing numbers of visitors or exhortations about the importance of Asian tourism. This is a book that I can gladly recommend to those interested in tourism in Asia."
    Chris Ryan, Pacific Affairs: Volume 83, No. 3 – September 2010