Indigenous residents, tourism knowledge exchange and situated perceptions of tourism

Abstract

This study investigates how interactions with tourism knowledge varieties affect indigenous hosts’ perceptions of tourism and regulate perceived tourism values. Diffusion and adult learning theories underpin the foundation of the study. Utilising a qualitative approach and a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology, this study takes Hoa Binh province (Vietnam) as the study context. Fifteen indigenous hosts from the Muong, an ethnic minority group from this province, were interviewed using life-focus, story-telling techniques. The interviewees shared their experience of judging and absorbing varied tourism know-how. They also expressed their perceptions of tourism and justified their evaluations on tourism values. The data was then analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The findings suggest the role of not-for-profit supporters in informing a sustainable expectation set for indigenous hosts about nuanced tourism impacts, thereby positively influencing their perceptions of tourism. The potential of the hermeneutic phenomenological methodology in gauging both manifest and latent layers of indigenous hosts’ perceptions of tourism is also argued. Finally, the research contributes to the ideological debates about the decolonialisation of community-based tourism development and in research with indigenous communities from an Asian context.