Becoming an informal female guide? From a gender performativity perspective

IF 7.3 2区管理学 Q1 HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM

Tourism Management Perspectives Pub Date : 2025-03-01 DOI:10.1016/j.tmp.2025.101348

Hui Wang , Honggang Xu

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Abstract

Informal tour guides, particularly female ones, constitute a significant segment of informal employment in the tourism industry, yet they receive scant research attention. Butler's theory of gender performativity offers valuable insights into understanding how rural women become informal tour guides. Through interviews conducted in the rural tourism destination of Yangshuo, China, we discover that informal female guides undergo simultaneous transformations of two identities: to be an informal tour guide through taking on professional roles (pathfinders, information providers, and brokers) and further to become an informal female guide by assuming gender roles (fashion icons, persuaders, tourists' followers, and emotional providers). As these rural women ageing, both their professional and gender roles evolve. By exploring the identity formation process of informal female tour guides, our study not only enriches the existing body of literature on tour guide research but also develop gender performativity theory within the context of tourism.

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成为一名非正式的女导游？从性别表演的角度来看

非正式导游，特别是女性导游，构成了旅游业非正式就业的重要组成部分，但他们很少得到研究关注。巴特勒的性别表演理论为理解农村妇女如何成为非正式导游提供了宝贵的见解。通过对中国阳朔乡村旅游目的地的访谈，我们发现非正式女导游同时经历着两种身份的转换：通过扮演职业角色（探路者、信息提供者、中间人）成为非正式导游，通过扮演性别角色（时尚偶像、劝导者、游客追随者、情感提供者）进一步成为非正式女导游。随着这些农村妇女的老龄化，她们的职业和性别角色都在发生变化。通过对非正式女性导游身份形成过程的探索，不仅丰富了现有的导游研究文献，而且拓展了旅游语境下的性别表演理论。

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来源期刊

Tourism Management Perspectives Multiple-

CiteScore

15.60

自引率

3.40%

发文量

审稿时长

59 days

期刊介绍： Tourism Management Perspectives is an interdisciplinary journal that focuses on the planning and management of travel and tourism. It covers topics such as tourist experiences, their consequences for communities, economies, and environments, the creation of image, the shaping of tourist experiences and perceptions, and the management of tourist organizations and destinations. The journal's editorial board consists of experienced international professionals and it shares the board with Tourism Management. The journal covers socio-cultural, technological, planning, and policy aspects of international, national, and regional tourism, as well as specific management studies. It encourages papers that introduce new research methods and critique existing ones in the context of tourism research. The journal publishes empirical research articles and high-quality review articles on important topics and emerging themes that enhance the theoretical and conceptual understanding of key areas within travel and tourism management.