@article{Wen_2020, title={Emerging Scholar Profile- Dr. Jun Wen}, volume={17}, url={https://ertr-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/ertr/article/view/687}, abstractNote={<p>Dr Jun Wen is an early career researcher and lecturer at the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Jun earned a PhD in hospitality management in August 2018 from the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Since beginning his PhD journey in 2014, Jun has honed his research aspirations through interactions with industry practitioners and in his personal work, daily life, and travel experiences. He has gradually developed his research identity with support from several research collaborators and mentors. Between 2018 and 2019, Jun published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles (including one in Chinese), including three that appeared in <em>Tourism Management</em> with several others in top-tier journals such as <em>Current Issues in Tourism</em>, <em>Journal of Destination Marketing & Management</em>, <em>Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research</em>, <em>Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing</em>, <em>Tourism Analysis</em>, and <em>Anatolia</em>. Jun is especially proud of examining research questions in which he is personally invested; he believes that studying topics of genuine interest make the research journey highly rewarding and provide motivation to surmount any challenges a young scholar may face. Herein, Jun discusses his four main research interests in the context of several key articles published with support from his research mentors.</p> <p> </p> <p>While Jun firmly believes that interest is the best teacher, just as important are the research mentors who have guided Jun through his entry into academia. Jun’s primary research interest lies in special interest tourism markets and tourist behaviour with a particular focus on Chinese outbound tourists. His relevant journal articles have investigated Chinese cigar aficionados’ visits to Cuba (Wen & Huang, 2019a), Chinese food-oriented tourists (Ying, Wen, Law, Wang, & Norman, 2018), Chinese cannabis-oriented tourists in Amsterdam (Wen, Meng, Ying, Qi, & Lockyer, 2018), and Chinese male outbound sex tourists (Ying & Wen, 2019). These articles considered underexplored and emerging special interest tourism markets to highlight the diversity of Chinese outbound tourists. Jun wishes to express particular gratitude to Associate Professor Tianyu Ying (Zhejiang University, China) and Fang Meng (University of South Carolina, US) for their help in laying a foundation for Jun’s career since he started his PhD research.</p> <p> </p> <p>Jun’s second research line involves social issues and emerging debates in tourism and hospitality. He is passionate about delving into social concerns such as human trafficking and sex trafficking, perceived racial discrimination, and socially deviant tourism activities and behaviour. Jun also wishes to contribute to emerging debates such as those surrounding physician-assisted suicide travel and relevant laws and regulations in tourism and hospitality. In November 2019, Jun and his two research mentors (AProf Fang Meng and AProf Tianyu Ying) launched a special issue as guest editors of the prestigious tourism journal, <em>Anatolia</em>, on the topic of “Social issues and emerging debates in tourism and hospitality” to solicit papers from researchers and practitioners with similar interests. Within this newly developed research area, Jun and his collaborators have published three articles on suicide tourism (e.g., Yu, Wen, Goh, & Aston, 2019; Wen, Yu, & Goh, 2019) with additional manuscripts under review in several journals. Jun is honoured to receive valuable research guidance and support from <em>Anatolia</em>’s Chief Editor, Prof. Metin Kozak (external mentor); the two plan to collaborate on research involving suicide travel and other meaningful topics beginning in early 2020.</p> <p> </p> <p>Jun’s third research area focuses on tourists with mental disorders, namely their behaviour and relevant influences on local tourism destinations. Research involving potentially sensitive topics such as cannabis tourism and sex tourism has complemented Jun’s first research stream, and related findings inspired him to delve into the characteristics of tourists who may have pre-existing mental disorders (e.g., cannabis tourists who may be addicted to cannabis or sex tourists who may be addicted to sex). Tourism represents an interdisciplinary platform where various domains can provide valuable insights into particular topics. Studies of tourists with mental disorders provide an ideal starting point to explore the nexus between tourists and social or medical science. Revelations should enable tourism scholars and practitioners to more fully understand the current tourism market and tourist behaviours. Although tapping into this research area will require great care from Jun and his research team, he is eager to explore these issues and hopes to share valuable research output in 2020.</p> <p> </p> <p>Last but not least, Jun is interested in the general Chinese outbound tourism market and tourist behaviours. China has become one of the largest tourist-generating countries in the world; therefore, knowledge about this market is essential to the tourism industry’s global development. With extensive support from his internal research mentor from ECU, Prof Songshan (Sam) Huang, Jun has published four articles focusing on Chinese senior outbound tourists (Wen, Huang, & Goh, 2020) and Chinese outbound tourists visiting Israel as a traditionally ‘unpopular’ tourism destination (e.g., Wen, Huang, & Ying, 2019; Wen & Huang, 2019b). As Prof. Sam Huang commented in a study by Wen et al. (2020) about Chinese senior outbound tourists, “This is an important topic, and we have made good contributions to the field by researching the ageing population’s travel and tourism needs.” Prof. Brian King (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) echoed this sentiment in noting, “… with a fast ageing population, [Chinese senior outbound tourists offer] important research for [the tourism] field.” Jun agrees and plans to continue developing his research stream on Chinese senior outbound tourists. To further extend this work, he intends to apply for the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award through the Australian Research Council, potentially in 2021.</p> <p> </p> <p>Altogether, 2019 was a magical year in Jun’s early career with respect to the quantity and quality of his research—and ECU’s generous support played a pivotal role in his accomplishments. Since joining the university in early 2019, Jun has received full or partial funding totalling about AUD$ 100,000 for seven research projects through the School of Business and Law, research centres (e.g., Markets and Services Research Centre and the Centre for Work and Organizational Performance), and ECU combined. With its myriad grant opportunities and welcoming environment for young academics, Jun feels privileged to sow the seeds of his career at ECU. </p> <p> </p> <p>Apart from the aforementioned support from his external research mentors, Jun would also like to thank Prof Sam Huang for his rigorous research guidance and training. Sam has taught Jun a great deal about performing innovative work. His scholarly philosophy has also left a strong impression on Jun as a budding researcher: “I teach to educate good citizens and assist them for a good life; I research to create real knowledge; I provide services to industry, government, and society”. Although Jun’s academic career has only just begun, he cannot wait to share lessons from his collaborators and mentors with young researchers who have similar interests. In 2019, Jun began to collaborate with master’s-level research students including Miss Chung-En Yu (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) and PhD student Miss Xinyi Liu (Sichuan University, China) to nurture their research careers. Overall, Jun is always open to new research collaborations and appreciates every opportunity to learn from others. He is steadfastly committed to investigating novel topics that shed light on the tourism and hospitality industry from academic and practical perspectives.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>References</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., & Huang, S. (2019a). The effects of push and pull travel motivations, personal values, and destination familiarity on tourist loyalty: A study of Chinese cigar tourists to Cuba. <em>Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 24</em>(8), 805-821.</p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., & Huang, S. (2019b). Chinese tourists’ motivations of visiting a highly volatile destination: A means-end approach. <em>Tourism Recreation Research</em>. doi:10.1080/02508281.2019.1637078</p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., Huang, S., & Goh, E. (2020). Effects of perceived constraints and negotiation on learned helplessness: A study of Chinese senior outbound tourists. <em>Tourism Management</em>. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2019.104059</p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., Huang, S., & Ying, T. (2019). Relationships between Chinese cultural values and tourist motivations: A study of Chinese tourists visiting Israel. <em>Journal of Destination Marketing & Management</em>. doi:10.1016/j.jdmm.2019.100367</p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., Meng, F., & Ying, T. (2019). Call for papers - Special issue on “Social issues and emerging debates in tourism and hospitality”. <em>Anatolia</em>. Retrieved from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337387787_Anatolia_An_International_Journal_of_Tourism_and_Hospitality_Research_Call_for_Papers_Special_Issue_on_Social_Issues_and_Emerging_Debates_in_Tourism_and_Hospitality">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337387787_Anatolia_An_International_Journal_of_Tourism_and_Hospitality_Research_Call_for_Papers_Special_Issue_on_Social_Issues_and_Emerging_Debates_in_Tourism_and_Hospitality</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Wen, J., Meng, F., Ying, T., Qi, H., & Lockyer, T. (2018). Drug tourism motivation of Chinese outbound tourists: Scale development and validation. <em>Tourism Management, 64</em>, 233-244.</p> <p>Wen, J., Yu, C., & Goh, E. (2019). Physician-assisted suicide travel constraints: Thematic content analysis of online reviews. <em>Tourism Recreation Research, 44</em>(4), 553-557.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ying, T., & Wen, J. (2019). Exploring the male Chinese tourists’ motivation for commercial sex when travelling overseas: Scale construction and validation. <em>Tourism Management, 70</em>, 479-490.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ying, T., Wen, J., Law, R., Wang, L., & Norman, W. (2018). Examining the efficacy of self-classification approach in segmenting special-interest tourists: Food tourism case. <em>Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 23</em>(10), 961-974.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yu, C., Wen, J., Goh, E., & Aston, J. (2019). “Please help me die”: Applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel. <em>Anatolia, 30</em>(3), 450-453.</p>}, number={6}, journal={e-Review of Tourism Research}, author={Wen, Jun}, year={2020}, month={Aug.}, pages={962–964} }