Understanding Vietnamese Attitudes Toward Chinese Inbound Tourism Development: A Cultural Political Economy Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study investigated the formation of locals’ attitudes toward Chinese tourism to Nha Trang via a cultural political economy approach. An ethnographic fieldwork was conducted, and data were analyzed via critical grounded theory analysis. It found that locals’ views on Chinese tourism were concentrated on Chinese tourism as a source of income, which, however, was somewhat challenged by their concerns about tourism investments from China. While the residents had overall mixed views on the socio-cultural impacts of local tourism development, Chinese tourism was primarily associated with negative social impacts. Although residents had overall negative or neutral perceptions of Chinese tourists, their behavioral response to them was mostly positive. The study suggests that it is the interplay of social imaginaries relating to Chinese tourism (i.e. ‘tourism as a tool of economic growth’, and ‘China as an “external enemy”’), embedded in broad social, economic, political, and historical contexts, and locals’ encounter with Chinese tourism mobility (i.e. mobility of Chinese people, capital, information etc. along with Chinese tourism) that shapes the ambiguity of locals’ attitudes.