A Study of How Adult Third Culture Kids Travel

As our world continues to become more global day by day, an increasing number of families are taking their children along while they pursue international careers. Their kids grow up outside their passport country, in a culture other than their own, and develop their own identity. While Third Culture Kids are of all nationalities, they share common traits such as high mobility and growing up among many cultural worlds. Mobility is part of a TCKs life. They travel, their friends travel, their surroundings change, whether it is the people or their physical surroundings. Many TCKs have grown up in Saudi Arabia, where expats make up a large portion of the population. Unlike TCKs who have lived in other countries, these TCKs cannot return to their former home country easily as there is no opportunity to get a tourist visa. This thesis explores how the third culture experience takes influence on the travelling behaviour as an adult and on the perception of foreign cultures. Further this thesis tries to identify in which ways TCKs would make up an ideal group of tourists for Saudi Arabia, from the Arabian point of view as well as the TCKs point of view.

Autorentext

Sherin Hozaien was born in Austria in 1976. At age 7 she moved to Saudi Arabia with her family. She studied hotel management in Vienna and continued her studies in tourism management in Linz. Now she manages her own travel agency Indigo Nomad Travel and works in the field of education in global issues. Sherin Hozaien lives in Linz with her family.