Hong Kongs guided tours: Contexts of tourism image construction before 1997

Abstract

This paper deals with how different tourism images are constructed in different contexts. Unlike many previous sociological and anthropological studies of tourism, this paper focuses primarily on tourism production rather than experience in tourism. We suggest that there is a need to look into tourism production closely.

Dean MacCannell's concept of 'authenticity' has been influential in the sociological and anthropological studies of tourism. His concept of 'authenticity' assumes that 'commercialism' is separate from 'authentic culture,' or 'commercialism' is devoid of 'authentic culture.' 'Commercialism' is even seen as decadence or death of 'authentic culture.' From this point of view, modern ways of production, including tourism production, are regarded as a process of 'commodification,' which, moreover, is regarded as a universalizing force in the modern world. When tourism production is seen primarily as part of this universalizing force of 'commodification,' the study of tourism production no longer addresses such questions as how particular tourism production is borne out of specific socio-cultural forces.

This paper deals with the guided tours that were produced by two types of institutions, namely, the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) and the Hong Kong tour operators that catered for Japanese package tourists. The comparative study aims at revealing how important particular institutional contexts are in shaping the processes of image production in tourism. We have discovered that various particular contexts have helped shape the forms and characters of the tours, upon which the particular institutional structure of the tour producers and the personal aspects of the tour guides have played a major role in the process.

本文冒在研究各種文化脈絡如何形成不同的旅遊形象。有關於旅遊之社會學與人類學研究的重要爭論，主要集中在旅遊者的經驗、旅遊者的類型、旅遊者與當地人的關係以及旅遊與社會結構的關係，而很少涉及關於旅遊產業的生產者的討論。但是，我們認為對於旅遊產業的生產者的深入研究是重要地，因此本文的研究焦點將著重於旅遊產業的生產者而非旅遊者的感官經驗。

Dean MacCannell的「真實性J (authenticity) 概述對於社會學與人額學關於旅遊的研究有很深的影響，但是本文認為Dean MacCannell 的觀點已對旅遊者的慾望和意識以及旅遊生產者的研究造成盲點。這種「真實性J 的論述假設了商業主義(commercialism) 與真正的文(authentic culture) 是分別存在地，或者說商業主義沒有真正的文化內涵;尤有甚者，商業主義被指責為形成文化內涵衰落與死亡的原因。從這個觀點看來，現代的一切生產活動，包括旅遊生產業，都被視為一種商業化的過程。而這種商業化的過程，亦被視為現代社會中一種「普同化J 的力量。如果，旅遊產業被簡單地歸類為這種商業過程的一部分，那麼我們對旅遊生產者的研究就忽略了社會文化力量在其中所扮演的角色。

本文針對由香港旅遊協會提供的旅行團與民間私營旅遊業者針對日本遊客所推出的旅行團進行比較研究，研究的目的旨在暴露出旅遊形象的生產過程中，特定組織所扮演的角色與其重要性。我們發現，政治、經濟、文化、商業與意識形態對於上述旅團的形式與特色有重大的影響，其中生產者本身的組織文化尤為重要。除此之外，我們也發現，有時候，導遊本身也是形成旅遊形象的關鍵。