ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of tourists with Asian ethnicities in the process of guided tour planning in Svalbard. The research informing this chapter is based on an ethnography of guided tours and semi-structured interviews with tourist guides. The chapter’s aim is to explore common labels and expectations associated with Asian tourists that are used by tour guides and the role of the former in tour planning. Using a constructivist perspective, Asianness is interpreted as a situational, relational, and contextual ethnic category. Tour planning is presented as an analytical process in which guides create interpretations and assessments of tourists’ abilities drawn upon different sources of information. Expectations and experiences based on the ethnicity of Asian tourists are significant sources of information in the initial phases of tour planning. The significance of ethnicity decreases throughout the planning process. Instead, observations of tourists’ performances become a dominant source of information for guides’ interpretations and assessments.
