Migrant Communities and Tourism Consumption

Abstract

This paper examines how Vietnam is perceived by Vietnamese migrants (Viet kieu) resident in Australia and explores the impact of cultural factors on their travel consumption with particular reference to return visits to Vietnam. A framework is proposed to explain these relationships, highlighting the role of those cultural factors such as family structure, lifestyle, kinship and marriage in light of the diaspora experience. As was shown in work published previously by the authors, return trips to Vietnam prompt participants to consider issues of identity, rootlessness and belonging and about the relationship between past and present. The Viet kieu share a strong sense of history and culture, having experienced the physical and emotional trauma of migration. Their experience raises broader questions about the way that migrants view the world such as the differences between the “imagined” country left behind and the reality of life in Vietnam. The former becomes a kaleidoscope of landscapes, people, buildings and objects. It is the view of the authors that the decision to travel back to Vietnam may be prompted by a desire to maintain Vietnamese identity and meaning, thereby enabling travellers to maintain a degree of normality in their new social environment.