This book offers a bird’s-eye view of the current trends, opportunities, and challenges related to Asian youth travellers, and it also presents a holistic framework for future research to build upon. Managerial and policy implications are provided for the tourism and hospitality industry and government agencies to better accommodate the needs of Asian youth travellers – a unique and diverse market that is yet to be fully unveiled to the world. The book investigates the key characteristics that define contemporary Asian youth travellers, adopting a broad definition of Asia. While it includes relatively mature markets, it also features emerging markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The book looks at different forms of tourism undertaken by Asian travellers, encompassing educational tourism, adventure tourism, working holiday, self-driving tourism, dark tourism, volunteer tourism, and cultural tourism. A wide range of topics are discussed, from history to current trends, from motivations to constraints, from the influence of culture and religion on travel behaviour to the search of social freedom through travel, and from destination choice to destination avoidance. The findings and interpretations are drawn from diverse and novel research methods, such as netnography, visual anthropology, historiography, interview, focus group, survey, and document analysis.

For too long, the area of independent Asian youth tourism has remained under-examined in terms of the kind and depth of urban cultural experiences that could be associated with it. This paper is based on study results that investigated urban cultural experiences of fully independent (of family and tour package decision-making) youth tourists (15-29 years), whose main growth and development has occurred in Asia. Subjects were drawn from overnight visitors to Hong Kong in 2012 and were either interviewed in-depth or in short semi-structured surveys. The results were interpreted against a background comprising the available relevant academic literature and the interaction witnessed in cybercommunities in chatrooms and forums studied over that year. The study identified six possible types of independent Asian youth cultural tourists, four of which may be specific to Asia and a range of cultural experiences regional tourists seek in Hong Kong. It also concluded that the use of the Internet and a (either a loose or tight) collective approach to decision-making will continue to define most of this group, although it includes a small number questing for specific and in-depth cultural experiences that may sometimes prefer to undertake solo trips. Both may develop into the purposeful cultural tourists of the future for this region.

“Paints a telling portrait of this most restless generation raised in a system that has provided them with unprecedented personal opportunities while denying them political ones. . . . A gifted observer.”—Washington Post "Informative and often humorous . . . Presents a refreshing range of perspectives about being twenty-something in China."—Forbes “Masterfully crafted.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “A perceptive and quietly profound book.”—Booklist, starred review "Compelling and beautifully written."—Prospect China’s new youth are the generation that will change China. Offspring of the one-child policy, with no memory of Tiananmen, they are destined to transform both their nation and the world. Understanding their motivations, dreams, and attitudes is possibly the most important gauge of China’s future direction as it plays an increasingly important role in shaping this century. China’s New Youth follows the lives of six young Chinese as they navigate their aspirations, discontents, politics, and love lives. Their stories include a netizen nationalist, a country migrant, the daughter of a Party member, a rising pop star, and a feminist entrepreneur. With intimate access to this diverse generation, Alec Ash—a young writer based in China since 2012—gives a vivid, immersive, fascinating account of young China as it comes of age. China's New Youth was originally published in hardcover until the title Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China. The new paperback edition has been updated with a new preface and afterword by the author and a new foreword by Karoline Kan.

Current Issues in Asian Tourism: Volume II draws together a collection of papers from Current Issues in Asian Tourism (CIAT). CIAT was launched by the editors of Current Issues in Tourism in response to the growing number of papers about tourism in Asia received by the journal and the increasing number of authors from Asian countries. This volume focuses on three aspects of Asian tourism. Firstly, the section on marketing, consumption and demand for Asian tourism includes papers on mega events, creative experiences, World Heritage Sites and pollution. Secondly, a group of papers focus on sustainable Asian tourism destinations including papers on investment, climate change, energy and local food. Finally, there are two chapters on Asian tourism research methods including the use of photography and qualitative methods. The papers in this book were originally published in Current Issues in Asian Tourism.

The first travel book for the sisters!

Youth Travel Matters: Understanding the Global Phenomenon of Youth Travel offers a global overview of the youth and student travel industry, by revealing the latest trends in youth travel destinations, products and innovations.The report, developed by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Youth Student & Educational Travel Confederation (WYSE Travel Confederation), a UNWTO Affiliate member, shows that the unique motivations of young travellers make this market extremely important to the key objectives of the global tourism agenda and that the personal social and economic value of youth, student and educational travel is increasingly being recognised by educational institutions, employers, official tourism organisations and governments worldwide.This report explains the uniqueness of this segment, its wish to explore and engage with cultures. It focuses on the special mix of their travel ambitions with study, work, volunteer placements and adventure. It also explains why they tend to stay much longer and therefore spend more than the average tourist, interacting more closely with the communities that they visit and making a direct contribution to local businesses.