VFR Travel Research

Elisa Backer is Associate Professor at Federation University Australia and is on the editorial board of nine journals. Her main research interests are VFR travel, destination marketing, partial industrialisation in tourism, family tourism and social media.Brian King is Professor and Associate Dean at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is joint editor-in-chief of the journal Tourism, Culture and Communication. His research focuses on tourism marketing with an emphasis on cultural dimensions and emerging markets, tourism and migration, international education and tourism.

• Chapter 1 Elisa Backer and Brian King: VFR Travel: Progressing Towards Greater Recognition Chapter 2 Elisa Backer and Alastair Morrison: The value and contributions of VFR to destinations and destination marketing Chapter 3 Tony Seaton and Caroline Tie: Are Relatives Friends? Disaggregating VFR Travel 1994-2014 Chapter 4 Brian King and Larry Dwyer: The VFR and Migration Nexus – the impacts of migration on inbound and outbound Australian VFR travel Chapter 5 Elisa Backer: VFR Travel: its true dimensions Chapter 6 Tom Griffin: The Experience and Implications of Immigrant Hosts Chapter 7 Elisa Backer and Brian Hay: Implementing VFR Travel Strategies Chapter 8 Zahed Ghaderi: Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel: the case of Iran Chapter 9 Joseph T. O’Leary, Gyehee Lee, Jung Eun Kim and Nandini Nadkarni: Travel in the United States: An Examination of VFR Travel Chapter 10 Christian M. Rogerson: VFR Travel in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of South Africa Chapter 11 Antonino Mario Oliveri: The VFR Phenomenon in Italy Chapter 12 Hamed M Al Suwaidi, Shabbar Jaffry, Alexandros Apostolakis: Examining Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) Demand in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Chapter 13 Jenny Cave and C. Michael Hall: Do Families Hold the Pacific Together? VFR, Voyaging, and New Expressions of Diasporic Networks Chapter 14 Elisa Backer and Brian King: Local Impacts, Global Prospects: The Future of VFR Travel

This book seeks to examine the social and economic importance of the VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) market, and it does so successfully. Global examples are provided, and nuanced differences made – such as even questioning why the ‘F’ and the ‘R’ are grouped together in the all too familiar acronym ‘VFR’ when such distinct differences exist between families and friends. This book is a welcome addition to the tourism literature for the contribution it makes on what has thus far been a relatively under-researched area.