The tourist wall: the case of China visitors in Malaysia

Tourist bubbles reduce tourist anxiety but they also create walls. This exploratory study looks at how Chinese visitors publicly review Malaysia on mafengwo.com and qyer.com. There is conspicuous silence on the discriminatory policies against Chinese Malaysians in those reviews even though manifestations of that policy is omnipresent. Thus, we look at how a Chinese tourist wall is constructed, and how tourist businesses are inadvertently strengthening that wall. We are also suggesting the importance of acknowledging "silence" in our data collection and analysis. This paper aims to facilitate our further understandings in Chinese tourists and the complexity of the host-guest relations in tourism.