Asia on Tour Exploring the rise of Asian tourism [Paperback]

With the vast majority of academic theory on tourism based on Western tourists, Asia on Tourillustrates 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 Tourwill 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. Singapores 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 Bochatls¢