ABSTRACT
In this context, ethnic reunion involves visiting friends and relatives1 and/or searching or re-searching for one's cultural roots (King, 1994). This form of travel has been identified as a popular activity for a number of ethnic communities living overseas: Barbadian (Western, 1992), Greek Cypriot (Thanopoulos & Walle, 1988), Pakistani (Khan, 1977) and Turkish communities (Liu et al, 1984). Some of these studies directly focused on the economic dimensions of the VFR (visiting friends and relatives) market, highlighting how high disposable incomes are important in determining the frequency of visits to the ancestral homeland (Thanopoulos & Walle, 1988) and how such forms of travel have a significant impact on the homeland economy (Liu et al, 1984). Importantly, recent technological developments and advancements in transport and communication networks have created more opportunities for (diasporic) minority groups to travel to places of ethnic significance, thereby encouraging such groups to strengthen their 'border relations with the old country'2 (Clifford, 1994: 304).
