Income Distribution, Tourist Commercialisation, and Hukou Status: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Tourism in Xidi, China

Abstract

The prevalent tourism economic impact assessment methods such as input-output models and the tourism satellite accounts have difficulties when applied to a small geographic scale, such as a rural community. Alternative methods are necessary to examine the micro-interaction mechanism of tourism development and social change in such small villages. An alternative socioeconomic analysis useful for rural communities is introduced in this paper, and is applied in a case study of Xidi, a traditional village in China. The case analysis shows that Chinese social status, hukou, plays an important role as a catalyst in the simultaneous processes of income distribution and tourist commercialisation. The paper suggests that while traditional impact studies of the economy, socio-culture, and environment on larger scales are necessary, integrated socioeconomic analysis is helpful on smaller scales.

Keywords:

• income distribution
• tourist commercialisation
• social status
• socioeconomic analysis

Acknowledgements

Dr Xiaoming Zhang would like to thank the Japanese Agon Shu for its Kiriyama (Tongshan) Scholarship that supported his fieldtrip to Xidi in January 2007. The authors also appreciate the anonymous referees’ constructive comments on the early versions of this paper.