From lived experience to research inquiry: Contemporary tourism practices and issues - Yunzhen Zhang

Hospitality tutor, Yunzhen Zhang’s, recent publications are inspired by her own experiences on the road and her close observation of emerging travel forms and phenomena. From relocating rental vehicles across New Zealand, wandering through Europe as the “other” backpacker, to appreciating dark skyscape for awe and contemplation, she turns personal tourism encounters into explorative research inquiries. Through autoethnography, netnography, and interview-based studies, she looks at what these underexplored experiences reveal about the contemporary turn in tourism. By approaching tourism as a set of affective, embodied encounters with the world, her research is an invitation to ponder over how tourism practices play a role in shaping who we are and how we relate to places.

Yunzhen has completed her doctoral thesis oral examination. Her PhD research project focuses on theories of affect and the onto-epistemological implications for studying emotion and affect in tourism. She has also participated in international conferences and consistently contributes to the field as a peer reviewer for tourism journals.

Most recent journal publications include:
Tripathi, A., & Zhang, Y. (2024). ‘Travelling for $1 a day!?’ Introducing rental vehicle relocation as a tourism practice. Current Issues in Tourism, Online first, 1-17.

Zhang, Y., & Cui, L. (2024). Tourists’ motivations for visiting dark sky sites: An exploratory study in China. Tourism Analysis, Advance online publication. 

Qin, Y., Zhang, Y., Pi, L., & Tao, L. (2024). The evolving path of community participation in tourism in migratory villages: insights from China. Current Issues in Tourism, Advance online publication. 

Zhang, Y., & Tripathi, A. (2023). (Other) backpackers and affective Europe. Current Issues in Tourism, 27 (4), 524–528.