The appearance of international tourism Halong bay Vietnam

In short, group identity in general is enhanced by the relative group status. Under low status circumstances, it is enhanced too if group boundaries are not permeable, and if insider group members perceive group status to be unstable or unfair. The confrontation between a culture, bound to a certain region, and the global culture, which is epitomized by the Halong bay Vietnam consumption culture, can be reframed in terms of the social identity the- ory. The local community constitutes a group of insiders. The global culture represents a group of outsiders, which may or may not threaten the local identity. People will compare the relative statuses of the local identity and global identity to establish whether they are better off in the group that they have membership in, at present. If locals, in terms of their own values, conclude that they are better off than outsiders, the local identity will tend to remain stable. However, if — in terms of their own values — locals conclude that they will be better off moving outside the ‘global’ pressure, it will lead to globalization and the disintegration of the local identity. Such scenario is likely to occur — unless one or more

of the exceptional situations identified by Ellemers (1991) apply. Firstly, if the current sta- tus of the local group is low, but not unlikely to be improved, local identity will be enhanced. Secondly, local identity will be enhanced, if the pathways to the higher status groups are blocked.

By definition, global culture is open to newcomers. Therefore in the case of globaliza- tion, the impermeability of group borders is imposed by circumstances that are external to the direct confrontation of the local and global culture. A third group may be present which controls social interaction. For example, van den Berghe (1995) describes how in southern Mexico, Maya farmers form the lowest class, and social structure is such, that they cannot rise to the higher class of the ‘Mestizos’ who occupy the more favourable social positions and own the tourist facilities. Here the only way up, for individual Mayas, would be to improve the position of the group collectively.

84 Johan van Rekom and Frank Go

The development of ethnic tourism is likely to enhance the status of low-ranked groups

to some extent, because it reduces the stability of a perceived low status and opens ways

to status improvement. The appearance of international tourism Halong bay Vietnam creates new circum- stances, which may render the old ‘status quo’ less stable and generate new opportunities for the low-status group. In the same Mexico example, Mestizos realized that the Mayas formed an important asset in attracting foreign tourists (van den Berghe, 1995). Local groups may become more aware, that also externally they are defined as a unique group, and experience certain recognition. In her study on Maya Indians in Belize, for instance, Medina (2003) found that tourists had little interest in mestizo identities and culture. Thereby they inverted the local hierarchy that valued Mestizos over Mayas. The effect of tourism, in this spectrum, might well be one of triggering the local population’s idea that their status may not need to be as low as it has been before.

Local identities will always stand out as a relative minority in relation to a more “global culture”. As soon as a group perceives itself to be of higher status than the global culture,

or moves to a higher status position after emancipation according to one of the two mech- anisms mentioned, they are likely to perceive themselves as high-status minorities. Then, cultural identity is likely to be enhanced rather than to disappear. The Mayan Indians of southern Halong bay VietnamMexico, as well as the island of Bali in Indonesia, are examples of how the local identity has been maintained and cultivated as the consequence of the arrival of tourism. The next section illustrates both cases.