{"title":"When hosts meet guests: Local residents' identity construction amidst rural tourism gentrification","authors":"Xiaolong Ma, Yiyuan Zhao, Weifeng Su","doi":"10.1016/j.annals.2025.103951","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amidst rural tourism gentrification, local residents' identity construction offers a window into how rapid local development transforms inter-subject power relations. Guided by embeddedness theory, a longitudinal case study in Ankang Village, China with 78 interviews and observations was conducted to explore the dynamics and mechanism of local residents' identity construction as hosts. Findings reveal that as tourism grows, local residents adopt interactive strategies of <em>withdrawal</em>, <em>negotiation</em>, and <em>advocacy</em>, constructing three identities: “nominal hosts”, “dubious hosts”, and “true hosts”. The reshuffling of identities results from the internal mechanism of “power disparity-interest consistency-identity subjectivity”. Successful demonstration by gentrifiers and equitable sharing of benefits would help the local community maintain its core status in dialogue with external entities, thereby achieving sustainable community-based tourism.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48452,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Tourism Research","volume":"112 ","pages":"Article 103951"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Tourism Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016073832500057X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Amidst rural tourism gentrification, local residents' identity construction offers a window into how rapid local development transforms inter-subject power relations. Guided by embeddedness theory, a longitudinal case study in Ankang Village, China with 78 interviews and observations was conducted to explore the dynamics and mechanism of local residents' identity construction as hosts. Findings reveal that as tourism grows, local residents adopt interactive strategies of withdrawal, negotiation, and advocacy, constructing three identities: “nominal hosts”, “dubious hosts”, and “true hosts”. The reshuffling of identities results from the internal mechanism of “power disparity-interest consistency-identity subjectivity”. Successful demonstration by gentrifiers and equitable sharing of benefits would help the local community maintain its core status in dialogue with external entities, thereby achieving sustainable community-based tourism.
期刊介绍:
The Annals of Tourism Research is a scholarly journal that focuses on academic perspectives related to tourism. The journal defines tourism as a global economic activity that involves travel behavior, management and marketing activities of service industries catering to consumer demand, the effects of tourism on communities, and policy and governance at local, national, and international levels. While the journal aims to strike a balance between theory and application, its primary focus is on developing theoretical constructs that bridge the gap between business and the social and behavioral sciences. The disciplinary areas covered in the journal include, but are not limited to, service industries management, marketing science, consumer marketing, decision-making and behavior, business ethics, economics and forecasting, environment, geography and development, education and knowledge development, political science and administration, consumer-focused psychology, and anthropology and sociology.