Where do the actors live? The Chinese tourist gazes in Hallstatt

ABSTRACT

Chinese outbound tourism is hugely significant in Hallstatt (Austria), alongside its replica, Hallstatt (China) which is also consumed by Chinese tourists. But do the tourists in the latter contribute to outbound tourism? This paper investigates the relationship across both Hallstatts to reveal a complexity of tourists flows through identity discourses based on the reproduction and imagination of place. It incorporates a research methodology based on a qualitative case study, analyzing the discourses of virtual reproductions of place, not as separate entities, but as one unified image across time and space. A conceptual framework is afforded through a balance of ‘western’ tourism concepts (tourist gaze and staged authenticity) with Chinese concepts (xiaozi and shanzhai) to reposition Hallstatt and Hallstatt, not as original and copy, but through the imaginary, mimetic reproductions of Chinese outbound tourists. By reflecting on tourist representations and incorporating the vocabulary of authentic tourist experiences, both Hallstatts come alive through an intricate waltz of gazing, experiencing and desiring to de-familiarize familiar spaces while playing up the imaginary. We introduce the idea of ‘sight’ to elucidate a mimetic gaze, rather than place, in the shaping of both the Austrian façade and the unraveling of an emerging Chinese consumer identity.

摘要

中国出境旅游对哈尔施塔特 (奥地利) 有着重要的意义, 同时它的‘复制’版–哈尔施塔特 (中国) 吸引了大量中国游客的消费。体验过中国版的Hallstatt的游客是否会增加去奥地利的Hallstatt的游客, 进而增加对出境旅游的贡献? 通过对两个国家‘哈尔施塔特小镇’关系的调查, 基于旅游目的地场景再现和想象的身份话语, 本文试图揭示游客流动的复杂性。采用一种基于定性案例研究方法, 将独立于不同地理位置的旅游目的地作为一个跨越时间和空间的统一整体, 分析了旅游目的地虚拟场景再现的话语。通过整合 ‘西方’旅游概念 (游客凝视和舞台真实性) 和中国概念 (小资和山寨), 提出了一个分析框架, 试图通过中国出境游客的想象, 模仿性复制来重新定位奥地利哈尔施塔特和中国‘哈尔施塔特’, 但并非辨析原始和复制旅游目的地的差异。通过对游客形象的反思并结合真实旅游体验的编纂, ‘两个哈尔施塔特小镇’ 都通过一首复杂的华尔兹舞曲变得活灵活现, 华尔兹舞曲中的凝视, 体验和渴望让熟悉的空间变得映像模糊, 同时渲染出想象中的场景。本文引入了‘视觉景象’的概念来阐明在塑造奥地利式表象和解构新兴中国消费者身份的过程中一种非目的地的模仿凝视。

KEYWORDS:

• Hallstatt
• tourist gaze
• shanzhai
• xiaozi
• authenticity
• China
• Austria

关键词:

• 哈尔施塔特
• 旅游凝视
• 山寨
• 小资
• 真实性
• 中国
• 奥地利

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Desmond Wee

Desmond Wee is Professor of Tourism at CBS Cologne in Germany and Vice-President (Europe) of Euro-Asia Tourism Studies Association (EATSA). His research interests explore a tourism of the everyday by analysing consumption theories, consumer culture, leisure practices and global mobilities using visualities and reflexive methodologies in the areas of identity, imagination and performance (E-mail: [email protected]).

Marina A. Schmitz is heading the Coca-Cola Chair of Sustainable Development at IEDC-Bled School of Management, Bled, Slovenia. Her research interests include sustainability and Rising Economies, Asian Business, HRM, sustainability and higher education institutions (HEIs), and sustainable management (E-mail: [email protected]).

Anthony Amato just completed his Master’s Thesis at the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree of South European Studies at the University of Glasgow, Autonomous University of Madrid and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is currently an adjunct at the Karlshochschule International University (Germany). His research interests include tourism authenticity, discursive constructions of Identity, and Polanyian heterodox economics (E-mail: [email protected]).