Decolonising Asian Tourism in the New Entanglements of International Tourism

The new normal of international tourism is constantly being redefined, re-disrupted and revolutionised, as the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing war reshape global order. Pandemic lockdown measures have encouraged a phase of rising localism and relocalisation in tourism; nevertheless, the growing urge for international travel and growth, deeply rooted in neoliberalism and neocolonialism, has begun to resurface in the names of individual freedom and economic recovery. This session calls for intellectual discussion among scholars from different disciplines to engage in localised approaches and/or lenses to envisage the new normal with a focus on Asian tourism.

The mounting East versus West tension has seen the diplomatic and economic ties simultaneously being strengthened and yet challenged in different ways between China and various Asian countries. As China’s outbound tourists remain largely absent in its zero-COVID pandemic management strategies, new frameworks of intraregional travel arrangements have emerged in Asia, and these will play an integral role in the post-COVID era. As such, this session calls for studies/dialogues that engage local epistemologies to challenge hegemonic definitions, interpretations and practices of Asian tourism. This session also welcomes research that considers inter-regional politics; notions of social responsibility, responsibility to protect, and social safety; individual agency and identities beyond the monolithic “Asian-ness” as well as individual and collective development.