Tourism Places is a special issue of Tourism Geographies that is published about once a year, give or take a couple of issues. This issue of Tourism Places is focused on tourism in Asia, in particular the Chinese realm of mainland China and Taiwan, but also a couple of papers from Southwest Asia. East Asia has been the most dynamic region for tourism growth and development in the world over the past couple of decades, driven by the growth of both outbound and domestic travel and tourism among mainland Chinese. This reflects the phenomenal change in prosperity that the People’s Republic of China has experienced since the 1970s, as well as the human drive to travel and explore their world.
While lagging behind for a while, tourism scholarship has also grown significantly in quantity and quality from the Asian continent in recent years, which is reflected in the articles included in this special issue. Much of the tourism scholarship in Asia is still focused on developing the Asian economies to move them from their ‘developing world’ status. However, this is rapidly changing as younger researchers become more exposed to international research norms, as seen throughout the recent pages of Tourism Geographies. This special issue highlights the progress of tourism scholarship in Asia, along with the impacts of tourism on tourism places. And, it also kicks off our journal’s third decade of publishing articles that bring insight and understanding to travel and tourism as a place and space phenomenon.
Editor-in-Chief
Tourism Geographies
Department of Geography, Planning, and Recreation
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona, USA