Married immigrant women’s VFR tourism as the way to ethnic minority group acculturation

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to examine the bases of married immigrant women’s VFR Tourism behaviors. Over the last decade, Korea has witnessed an unprecedented growth of immigrants who are married to Korean males. This emerging population, as a new ethnic minority group, are expected to play an important role in the sustainability of the Korean family as well as the society. Academic interest in this phenomenon naturally leads to the consideration of the acculturation issue and multi-cultural policy impacts. Extending the research horizon, VFR tours as one of the leisure patterns of married immigrant women are considered important. Nevertheless, VFR tourism studies in the context of married immigrants are scarce. In this study we take a grounded theory approach. Questionnaire based in-depth interviews with 11 Vietnamese women in Korea were conducted. The findings were: the core category of the VFR tour is revealed as a ‘Process to overcome their doubled disadvantaged position as an ethnic minority and as a housewife under patriarchy.’ They encounter family risk mainly due to the cultural adaptation problem and choose a VFR tour to their origin to sustain successful marriage life and acculturation. The significance and limitation of this research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Double disadvantage
• ethnic minority group
• grounded theory
• married immigrant women
• patriarchy
• VFR tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Bo-Young Moon is a Professor in Tourism Management. Her research interests include cultural and wellness tourism. She has also served at Korea National Tourism Organization. She works at the Faculty of Liberal Arts in the Eulji University, South Korea.

Dr. Soung-Hoon Yang, an Associate Professor in Tourism Management, teaches tourism marketing in Silla University, South Korea and he is actively involved in the Cittaslow Movement (‘Slow City’, alternative regional development) in South Korea. He has also established industry careers in JW Marriott Hotel and Royal Caribbean Cruise International.

Dr. Timothy J. Lee, an Associate Professor in Business, is interested in health and wellness tourism. He serves as the founding director of the Global Congress of Special Interest Tourism and Hospitality (www.glosith.org) and the International Congress of Health-Oriented Tourism and Hospitality (www.healthorientedtourism.org) conferences. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Tourism Sciences (www.tandfonline.com/rijt).