Socially sustainable ethnic tourism: a comparative study of two Hakka communities in China

ABSTRACT

Ethnic tourism is a catalyst for economic and sociocultural development in many countries. However, ethnic tourism development has given rise to many challenges associated with the sustainable development of ethnic regions within different cultural contexts. This paper addresses the social aspect of sustainable ethnic tourism through comparative case studies of two ethnic Hakka tourism destinations, Nanyuan and Sujiawei villages in Heyuan, Guangdong Province, China. The comparative case-study research design included in-depth interviews, document analysis and a household study in each case-study village. The comparative case study provides insights into factors contributing to socially sustainable ethnic tourism in China, including levels of community involvement, control of the tourism ‘product’, the benefits accruing to the ethnic community, perceived inconveniences/externalities and authenticity considerations. This study contributes to a better understanding of socially sustainable ethnic tourism in a Chinese context, and has practical implications for ethnic tourism destination marketing, management and policy-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese ethnic tourism
• social sustainability
• community participation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Lixia Zhuang is a lecturer specialising in tourism management, with an emphasis on ethnic tourism, sustainable tourism, CP and destination management.

Tracy Taylor is a Professor of Sport Management with an emphasis on human resource management and diversity. She is currently the Deputy Dean of the University of Technology Sydney.

David Beirman is a Senior Lecturer specialising in Tourism, Management Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology-Sydney. His teaching and research in tourism focuses on destination management and marketing and the field of tourism risk, crisis and recovery management.

Simon Darcy is a Professor of Events, Sport and Tourism specialising in inclusive organisational practice at the UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney. His research work is characterised by operationalising the outcomes of research within policy, business, government and not-for-profit sector practice.

ORCID

Tracy Taylor http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8847-7692

David Beirman http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3917-5361

Simon Darcy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5394-2566