Tourism In Asian Cities

This timely and significant book explores the characteristics and complexities of Asian urban tourism, considering the extent to which Western paradigms can be transferred to Asian settings and the striking contrasts that exist within the region. In an era of unprecedented urban expansion in Asian cities, this book comes at a time of great urgency, illuminating the possible problems and opportunities that arise when a destination emerges as a tourism hotspot. Split into three parts; introducing Asian urban tourism and urbanization, the management and marketing of Asian cities, and emerging trends and issues associated with Asian urban tourism, the book offers a range of varying and vibrant perspectives from international and interdisciplinary experts in the field. Chapters include studies on a wide range of destinations such as Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Phuket, Kolkata, Busan, Delhi, and Sri Lanka among many others, and explore crucial contemporary themes such as overtourism, urbanization and administrative challenges, world heritage, smart cities and the use of technologies such as VR in urban tourism experience creation. It will be a vital resource for upper-level students, researchers, and academics in tourism, city tourism, Asian studies, development studies, cultural studies, and sustainability, as well as professionals in the field of tourism management.

While there is no lack of studies on Asian cities, the majority focus on financial districts, poverty, the slum, tradition, tourism, and pollution, and use the modern, affluent, and transforming Western city as the reference point. This vast Asian empirical presence is not complemented by a theoretical presence; academic discourses overlook common and basic urban processes, particularly the production of space, place, and identity by ordinary citizens. Switching thevantage point to Asian cities and citizens, Transforming Asian Cities draws attention to how Asians produce their contemporary urban practices, identities, and spaces as part of resisting, responding to, andavoiding larger global and national processes. Instead of viewing Asian cities in opposition to the Western city andusing it as the norm, this book instead opts to provincialize mainstream and traditional knowledge. It argues that the vast terrain of ordinary actors and spaces which are currently left out should be reflected in academic debates and policy decisions, and the local thinking processes that constitute these spaces need to be acknowledged, enabled, and critiqued. The individual chapters illustrate that "global" spaces are more (trans)local, traditional environments are more modern, and Asian spaces are better defined than acknowledged. The aim is to develop room for understandings of Asian cities from Asian standpoints, especially acknowledging how Asians observe, interpret, understand, and create space in their cities.

Theorizing the Southeast Asian City as Text examines the ways in which culture, ethnicity, languages, traditions, governance, policies and histories interplay in the creation of the urban experiences in contemporary Southeast Asian cities. It focuses on the ways in which urban spatial forms are textual experiences, subject to interpretative strategies and the influence of other discourses. In addition it also analyzes the experiences of modernization in such cities, but also in terms of the strategies of containment, refurbishment, and loss which this has occasioned.

World Tourism Cities: A Systematic Approach to Urban Tourism is a unique and contemporary textbook that addresses the particular situation of urban tourism destinations in the 2020s by reviewing key issues, trends, challenges and future opportunities for urban tourism destinations worldwide, as well as city destination management. The book is divided into four parts, with Part I providing background chapters on world tourism cities. It begins by clearly defining world tourism cities and explaining the impacts of globalisation and urbanisation on these cities. The subsequent chapter explains the urban tourism phenomenon and traces its growth. Part II presents city destination management, planning and development and the marketing and branding of cities, offering practical solutions and approaches. Part III discusses major issues and trends in world tourism cities including resident well-being and quality of life, sustainability, smart tourism, crises and the rise of tourism in Asian cities, and the final part identifies the future opportunities for city tourism. Written in a student-friendly tone, the book is richly illustrated and contains several engaging features, including Sweet tweets (snippets of information on cities) and Short breaks (detailed case studies on cities). This will be essential reading for all tourism students.

At the beginning of the 21st century, headlines report how cities are going bankrupt, states are running large deficits and nations are stuck in high debt and stagnation. This text argues that thousands of places are in crisis and can no longer rely on national policies for protection. The authors show how places in Asia can become attractive products by effectively communicating their special qualities and attracting investment.

Theorizing the Southeast Asian City as Text examines the ways in which culture, ethnicity, languages, traditions, governance, policies and histories interplay in the creation of the urban experiences in contemporary Southeast Asian cities. It focuses on the ways in which urban spatial forms are textual experiences, subject to interpretative strategies and the influence of other discourses. In addition it also analyzes the experiences of modernization in such cities, but also in terms of the strategies of containment, refurbishment, and loss which this has occasioned. Contents:Urbanism and Post-Colonial Nationalities: Theorizing the Southeast Asian City (R B H Goh & B S A Yeoh)Reading the Southeast Asian City in the Context of Rapid Economic Growth (K S Tay & R B H Goh)“The Rise of the Merlion”: Monument and Myth in the Making of the Singapore Story (B S A Yeoh & T C Chang)Things to a Void: Utopian Discourse, Communality and Constructed Interstices in Singapore Public Housing (R B H Goh)Selective Disclosure: Romancing the Singapore River (S Huang & T C Chang)Malaysia's High-Tech Cities and the Construction of Intelligent Citizenship (T Bunnell)Museum/City/Nation: Negotiating Identities in Urban Museums in Indonesia and Singapore (K M Adams)The Urban and the Urbane: Modernization, Modernism and the Rebirth of Singaporean Cinema (A R Guneratne)Benjamin in Bombay? An Asian Extrapolation (R Patke) Readership: Undergraduates, graduate students, academics and professionals in architecture and urban planning. Keywords:Urban Studies;Southeast Asian Cities;Society and Culture;Literature;MediaReviews:“… there is much of value in the book both theoretically and empirically and it certainly deserves a readership beyond those interested in South-east Asia … this edited collection provides a good illustration of the benefits of taking the cultural turn, interpreting texts very broadly to cover anything from the built environment through museums and films as cultural artifacts to the role of the flâneur in construing rather than constructing the city.”Urban Studies

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.

This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian cities—developed and developing, large and small—and their urban development. Investigating the urban challenges and opportunities of cities from every nation in Asia, the handbook engages not only the global cities like Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai but also less studied cities like Dili, Malé, Bandar Seri Begawan, Kabul, and Pyongyang. The handbook discusses Asian cities in alignment to the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals in order to contribute to global policy debates. In doing so, it critically reflects on the development trajectories of Asian cities and imagines an urban future, in Asia and the world, in the post-sustainable, post-global, and post-pandemic era. Presenting 43 chapters of original, insightful research, this book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, students, and general readers in the fields of urban development, urban policy and planning, urban studies, and Asian studies.