Negotiating stigmatisation of deviant behaviour: an exploration of locals’ perceptions of nude tourists

ABSTRACT

Stigma may result in tense social interactions and discrimination between stigmatisers and stigmatised individuals. Despite its social relevance, stigma has been largely neglected in tourism sociocultural studies. Framed by Goffman’s and Falk’s theoretical propositions of social stigma, this paper aimed to explore local’s stigmatisation of tourists’ behaviour. This study revealed that locals’ stigmatisation of tourists’ behaviours can be spatially negotiated and deconstructed through social interactions. The data analysis also found that not all tourists are equally stigmatised and that tourists’ conduct can be highly stigmatised if adopted by locals. Based on in-depth interviews, these findings were drawn from an examination of locals’ perceptions of tourists’ nudist behaviours in a Mexican destination. This research’s results contribute to a fuller understanding of how locals (de)construct their stigmas of tourists’ behaviours through local-tourist sociocultural interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Nudism
• naturism
• local perceptions
• stigma
• nudism tourism
• tourism impacts

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their deepest gratitude to participants for their invaluable support in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Carlos Monterrubio received his PhD in Tourism from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is a lecturer and tourism researcher at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Mexico. His research interests are the sociocultural dimensions of tourism, tourism and sexuality, and tourism as a field of study.

Luis Valencia holds a Bachelor's Degree in Tourism from the Universidad del Mar, Mexico. He is currently undertaking a master's degree at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, Mexico. His research interest is tourism's social impacts.

ORCID

Carlos Monterrubio http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3706-4644

Luis Valencia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8830-3801