Asian tourism and the retreat of anglo-western centrism in tourist theory

In both its focus and conception, much of the research on tourism remains Anglo-Western centric. The ongoing growth of Non-Western forms of travel, most notably in Asia, renders this situation unsustainable. Our understandings of ‘the tourist’, ‘the modern tourism industry’ and the conceptual paraphernalia, which surrounds these two, are all firmly rooted in the empirical histories of Western Europe and North America. English language scholarship on tourism rarely rips up these ‘Western’ roots to interpret ‘Non-Western’ practices and industries. This paper focuses on the ongoing rise of Asian tourism to argue that in its current form the field of tourism studies is institutionally and intellectually ill equipped to understand and interpret the new era we are now entering. Accordingly, it is suggested that the core-periphery dynamics which characterises the field today should give way to cultural and political pluralism. The rapid growth in Asian tourism provides ample evidence for this position. This paper concludes by considering the future development of tourism studies in Asia. It is argued that the cultivation of critical scholarship within the region itself will not only help overcome the field's Anglo-Western centrism, but also help us better comprehend the profound societal changes now occurring through Asian mobility.