Hello
Almost two years ago, during the discussion about the movie “The
Beach”, I posted a notice on the network looking for a publisher for an
Ethnography of Western Travellers in Asia, based on my Ph.D. thesis.
The response has been overwhelming and I am pleased to report that
the work is now complete and that the book has been published this
month by White Lotus in Bangkok as part of Erik Cohen’s Series
“Studies in Asian Tourism”.
I would like to thank once again everybody who contributed their
suggestions and advice. I have attached an abstract below and look
forward to your comments.
Cheers,
Klaus Westerhausen
Dr. Klaus Westerhausen
Anthropologist
Tourism Program
Rockingham Campus
Murdoch University
ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia 6168
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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Beyond the Beach:
An Ethnography of Modern Travellers in Asia.
Studies in Asian Tourism No. 2. Series Editor: Erik Cohen
Abstract
Drifter-style tourism in Asia has become a sanitised and
institutionalised tourism alternative. Over the last thirty years it has
developed its own tourism myth and spawned a mobile subculture of
Western travellers. The study seeks to illustrate the historical
background, nature and ideology of present day travellers in Asia and
to present an "insiders view" of the subculture based on more than 6o
in-depth interviews conducted during the fieldwork. It will also
document the impact of those travellers on destinations in Asia by
chronicling the fate of the islands Koh Samui and Koh Phangan in
Southern Thailand. Those islands, at one stage or another, were
among the largest traveller-centres in Southeast Asia and have
subsequently achieved Hollywood Fame through Alex Garland's
popular novel "The Beach".
However, even without Hollywood, Asia's traveller subculture is worth
attention. With rapidly increasing numbers, it now represents a viable
market in its own right, one that fits in well with an ecologically
sustainable tourism product. However, development of this tourism
alternative is frequently being undermined by unsustainable growth
due to a lack of planning and by the destruction of its destination sites
by other tourism sectors. Experience shows that without advance
strategies for their development, many of those sites tend to develop
either in an unsustainable manner or become the target of "hostile
takeovers" by outside operators and competing tourism sectors. This
state of affairs has been instrumental in condemning travellers to
remain always just one step ahead of conventional mass tourism.
Keywords:
Backpackers-Asia-Sustainable Development- Thailand-Islands-
The Beach
Bibliographical Reference:
Westerhausen, Klaus:
Beyond the Beach: An Ethnography of Modern Travellers in Asia.
Studies in Asian Tourism No. 2.
Series Editor: Erik Cohen
(Bangkok 2002)
ISBN 974-4800-09-7
White Lotus Press
www.thailine.com/lotus
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