Interaction Rituals and Social Relationships in a Rural Tourism Destination

Abstract

The reproduction of social relationships in a rural tourism destination is examined through a micro-sociological lens that explores residents’ everyday interactions. Interaction ritual theory is adopted as the theoretical foundation. Zhinan, a mountainous village in Hangzhou, China, which initiated tourism in 2014, is the study site. Two rounds of focus groups and interviews were conducted with village residents. Qualitative inquiry shows that, under the influence of tourism, residents’ daily interactions consist of three interaction rituals, that is, rural living rituals, tourism operation rituals, and event and festival rituals. Due to the distinct ingredients, these rituals unfold differentially and engage different social actors. They complement each other in the co-construction of rural social relationships that have symbolic, emotional, collective, and normative connotations. This study provides in-depth, contextualized understandings of rural residents’ interactions and relationships, and draws practical implications for sustainable development of rural tourism destinations.

Linking Perceived Environmental CSR to Residents’ Environmental Citizenship Behavior in Rural Tourism: The Mediating Role of Resident–Environment Relationship Quality

“…There were two main reasons for doing so. One the one hand, considerable studies on destination residents have used data obtained from a single study site and produced valuable empirical findings, which validates the efficacy of this approach [ 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]. On the other hand, since living at a place permanently usually results in residents having more concerns when answering the questions, a door-to-door field survey is more difficult for the researchers compared to the survey of tourists.…”

Resource Mobilization and Power Redistribution: The Role of Local Governments in Shaping Residents’ Pro-Environmental Behavior in Rural Tourism Destinations

“…This kind of interaction is common in the village, as most Chinese rural villages are in essence an acquaintance society (M. Y. Wu, Tong, et al, 2022). The effectiveness of digital technology is also highly linked with the public evaluation systems used in the villages, as reported below.…”

“…Many villages, especially those within moderate distance from big cities, are taking the tourism business as one of their primary livelihoods in the form of running B&Bs, operating restaurants, and selling local specialties (M. Y. Wu, Tong, et al, 2022). With the boom and influx of tourists, these village destinations are under great pressure to manage waste.…”

Polluted psyche: the effect of regional discrimination on tourists’ unethical behavior intention

“…Tourists’ perception of regional discrimination often arises from interactions between tourists and local residents, and unethical behaviors by tourists toward local people are a direct response. Given that these interactions occur in the tourism environment, tourists’ unethical behaviors toward the destination may be seen as a relatively more implicit way of response (Wu et al , 2022b). Previous research has mainly explored explanations for tourists’ unethical behavior from the perspectives of reciprocal altruism theory (Fennell, 2006), social identity theory (Wan et al , 2021) and power theory (Li and Chen, 2017).…”