Assessing livelihood impacts of tourism : case studies of Hong Kong and mainland China

Abstract

For tourism to be developed sustainably in a community, residents’ participation is indispensable. Extensive research has been carried out to understand residents’ involvement in decision-making and sharing the benefits of tourism. Residents’ engagement in tourism related activities has been regarded as an effective way to share benefits from tourism. While the importance of residents’ engagement has been well recognized, limited research has explored why, or why not, residents engage in tourism related activities, and what factors influence their decisions. Answering these questions requires understanding of both residents’ willingness and capabilities to engage in tourism related activities. This research adopts a livelihood perspective to address these questions, and a sustainable livelihoods framework is applied to guide data collection, analysis and interpretation. Two tourist destinations, one in Hong Kong and the other one in mainland China, were selected as case studies. Both of the cases are fishing communities in southern China, but they are influenced by different political and economic systems. An ethnographic approach and qualitative research methods were employed for data collection and analysis. The two case studies reveal that residents take both economic and non-economic aspects into consideration when making livelihood decisions on engaging in tourism. Apart from being motivated to be involved in multiple livelihood activities, whether residents can gain access to different assets required for conducting certain livelihood activities is essential for their engagement. Residents in both case studies rely on different combinations of assets to conduct different tourism related activities and other livelihood activities. Among various assets, access to property or public space as physical capital and the possession of social capital are important for residents to engage in tourism. In both case studies, access to assets is influenced by a range of institutions (formal and informal) and organizations at multiple levels. However, under different political and economic systems, the types of organizations and their roles differ. In the case study of Hong Kong, non-government organizations in the private sector have played an important role in facilitating residents’ engagement, whereas in the case study of mainland China, governments at multiple levels, particularly at the lowest administrative level, have played a dominant role in determining residents’ access to assets and livelihood choices because their policies and regulations directly influence the community. The case studies layout how these policies have influenced people’s access to assets and their options for different livelihood activities, and have resulted in different livelihood outcomes. To further understand how policies, institutions and organizations function collectively at multiple levels to influence residents’ engagement in tourism related activities, the entitlements framework is adopted to elaborate how people enhance their capabilities. The influence of culture on people’s livelihoods is also explored. The two case studies demonstrate that the culture of both a community and a larger society can influence people’s access to assets and their livelihood decisions. Through an empirical investigation of the two cases, the thesis sheds light on the complex linkages among assets, institutions, organizations, policies and culture under the sustainable livelihoods framework.