Yong’s current research looks at three issues—tourism and happiness, collective behavior in tourism, and consumption of structure in tourism—by which he believes general marketing and consumer theories can be advanced through understanding tourist behavior. Yong’s research has been published in diverse outlets including Tourism Management, International Journal of Tourism Research and Journal of China Tourism Research. Yong has won research awards including the 2012 Outstanding Doctoral Research Award, Emerald Group Publishing Limited and European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), and the 2011 Best Paper Award, 2011 TOSOK (the Tourism Sciences Society of Korea) International Tourism Conference, Seoul, Korea.