The Acculturation Of Local Residents And Their Supportive Behavior For Ethnic Tourism

Over the past few years, ethnic tourism destinations have become popular for their unique cultures. Nevertheless, indigenous peoples of the traditional homelands often feel inadaptable both culturally and psychologically when they directly interact with tourists. If such inadaptability cannot be adjusted, local residents may become psychologically sick and driven by economic interests, they may even commercialize their culture and present "pseudo-folklore" to cater to the taste of mass tourists, which not only damages the personal interests of residents but also impairs the quality of the folk culture products supplied, weakens the competitiveness and finally endangers the sustainable development of ethnic tourism destinations. The above problems that are caused by the contact with new culture and new population fall under the category of acculturation.Although tourism is the most common form of face-to-face cross-cultural contact, the application of the acculturation theory to this context is seldom attracted attention by the academic field. Therefore, based on the individual level of nationality's acculturation, to address the core issue of "how the acculturation of local residents affect their supportive behavior for ethnic tourism", three empirical studies have been conducted in the context of ethnic tourism destination. Research One, deepen the research of acculturation, analyzed the dimension of local peoples'acculturation; Research Two, analyzed the acculturation's influencing mechanism for supportive behaviour for ethnic tourism, and analyzed the influence pathes of how the dimensions of acculturation effected residents'intention to support tourism through perception of the socio-cultural impact of tourism; Research Three, based on two classification methods, study the differences among different types of residents in the supportive behavior for ethnic tourism and investigate the conflicts between the ideal and real states of acculturation of the local residents.In order to test the study's hypothesis, the empirical analysis have been used in the article, formal questionnaire have been made. The author selected the residents of ethnic villages in the southeast of Guizhou as interviewees.600 surveys were disseminated, which resulted in 526 usable questionnaires for analysis,87.7% valid response rate. The resident samples all come from the three typical villages of Dong minority in the southeast of Guizhou, which are at different stages of tourism development.Based on the theoretical research and empirical analysis, following conclusions are drawn.(1) The acculturation of local residents in ethnic villages has three dimensions, namely social communication, conducts of daily life, and ethnic identity. To deeply analyze the measurement dimensions of residents'acculturation is a theoretical premise for studying the relationship between individual acculturation and other variables, and the dimensional analysis of acculturation is necessary for deepening the understanding of acculturation as well.(2) In this dissertation, we argue that indigenous peoples' supportive behavior for ethnic tourism have the attributes of "hospitality" and "authenticity". Specifically, these two attributes often determine the level of residents' involvement in tourism, the quality of tourism products, and the competitiveness of tourism destinations.(3) The acculturation of ethnic villagers has a significant influence on their supportive behavior for tourism. The empirical study of this paper finds that the dimensions of social communication and ethnic identity have significant negative effect on their intention to support tourism. The dimension of conducts of daily life has a significant positive effect on residents'intention to support authentic tourism, but has no significant affect on residents'intention to support hospitable tourism.(4) Perceiving the socio-cultural impact of tourism has significantly mediating effects on the relationship between the dimensions of acculturation and supportive behavior for ethnic tourism. The results show that acculturation could have impact on support intention through perception of the socio-cultural impact of tourism.(5) Residents with different types of acculturation have significantly different supportive behavior for ethnic tourism. Based on Berry's (1990) model, local residents'acculturation can be distinguished as four types, they are integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. The results show that residents with a higher level of acculturation have a stronger intention to support tourism than those with a lower level of acculturation.(6) This paper compares the classification of residents based on Berry's (1990) model of acculturation strategies with the classification of residents based on the acculturation scale developed in this research, and discovers that the former classification is the ideal manifestation of residents' attitude, while the latter one reflects the real state of residents'behavior and cognition. The former has a higher level of acculturation and supportive behavior for ethnic tourism is stronger as well, which proves once again that the level of acculturation has an effect to regional tourism development.Main theoretical contributions of this study are as follows.First, contributing to perfecting the research system for the sustainable ethnic tourism. The results of this research reveal that the three dimensions of acculturation influence, both directly and indirectly, local residents' supportive behavior for ethnic tourism development. This discovery is helpful to expand the theory of acculturation to tourism studies and perfect the research system for the sustainable development of tourism.Second, contributing to the deepening and contextualization of the acculturation theory. As indicated by the empirical findings of this research, individuals can experience more than one culture at the same time. And this article finds that no matter in terms of behavioral intention to support tourism or of the perception of the impact of tourism, the dimensions of individual acculturation are different in both degree and correlation. This means that the multi-dimensional acculturation scale based on context is not only necessary but more scientific.Third, contributing to the study of local people behavioral intention to support ethnic tourism. Based on a mass of existing research on residents'attitude about tourism, this study investigates the mechanism of their supportive behaviour.Finally, the Social Exchange Theory and Berry's (1990) model of acculturation strategies are used to carry out theoretical integration and competition. The attitudes and behavioral intention of individuals are driven by two elements, "non-economic rationality" and "economic rationality", and the comparative theories represented by ideal and real states indicate the development trend of acculturation.Findings of this dissertation also offer some managerial implications for ethnic tourism practitioners by "managing acculturation". Destination managers should know the acculturation status of local residents and on this basis help residents adapt to cultural changes and motivate their supportive behaviour for tourism, thus exploring a way for numerous ethnic tourism villages to effectively improve the life quality and solve the livelihood issues of local residents, meanwhile to truly safeguard the ethnic dignity of individuals and protect unique cultural heritages.