ABSTRACT
This book explores the politics of heritage tourism in Lijiang Ancient Town by analyzing the interconnectedness of place, representation, and capital. More specifically, it investigates how stakeholders in the industry wield their power to influence the production of heritage landscapes and how the less powerful resist this dominance. How a tourism landscape is shaped does not depend on production forces alone. Consumption of tourism is also integral to socio-spatial outcomes. By teasing out the dialectical workings of forces that originate globally (namely, the international tourist, transnational tourism industry players, and international conservation organizations), nationally (the central government of China), and locally (Naxi townspeople and local provincial and town authorities) on both the production and consumption dimensions of Lijiang’s tourism, a critical analysis is provided for why the hegemonic discourse supporting tourism development is sanctionable in this World Heritage Site. This chapter summarizes the key arguments and empirical findings of the book and ends with a discussion of the theoretical implications of our findings for critical tourism geographies.
