Asian Youth’s Motivations and Experience of Short-Term International Field Trips: Two Cases of Students in Macao, China, and Seoul, South Korea

This chapter aims to understand Asian youth’s interests, motivations, and experience during short-term international field trips and thus improve upon organisational efficiency of the trip and create a better student learning experience. This comparative case study is based on insights derived from structured interviews with undergraduate students majoring in tourism-related fields and in geography at tertiary educational institutions in Macao, China, and Seoul, South Korea, who participated in field trips to South Korea and to Vietnam during the 2016–2017 academic seasons. The results reflect the students’ concerns, motivations, and learning experiences before, during, and after a trip and their perceptions about the overall organisation and quality of the trip. Students’ perceptions and experiences, revealed from this study, will help to understand Asian youth subcultures as well as shared values, which may differ from those of other youth tourists.