Follow the Heart: Smartphones and Emerging Diversity

In this chapter we focus on the relationships between social media, individual preferences and the rise of distinct choices and preferences. Chinese tourism in Australia has evolved from a general group tourism almost entirely centred on key iconic sites and nature towards a more subtle and differentiated niche tourism. This evolution has been viewed as a distinction between ‘follow the crowd’ and ‘follow the heart’. Individual tourism increasingly emerged in the second decade of the century partly associated with a wave of younger tourists, more likely to be English speaking and increasingly ‘tech-savvy’. China is the world’s biggest social media market, where the number of internet users exceeds the entire population of the USA. Chinese internet users are richer, more educated and younger than the average Chinese citizen. This chapter explores the types of social media being used, how this has changed over time and how, through the rise of smartphones, social media has changed the practices of Chinese tourists.