“Performing tourism: Chinese outbound organized mass tourists on

their travels through German tourism stages”

Research Project

Tourism studies have understood tourism as a “western” phenomenon, which tended to neglect the

presence of “non-Western” tourists and to over-generalise the application and universality of their

theories. By now, tourism is a global phenomenon with growing numbers of “emergent tourists”,

especially from China. The number of Chinese outbound tourists has been growing steadily in the past

decade and, by 2013, has become the number one source market worldwide, both in terms of boarder-

crossings and expenditure. However, its quantitative importance, the touristic performances of this

source market, and especially the organized mass tourists in “western” tourism stages have not yet

been extensively researched.

This research project draws on the dramaturgical metaphor of performance developed by Erving

Goffman (1959), as well as the performance process as theorized by Richard Schechner (2002) in his

writings on Performance Studies to investigate how Chinese outbound organized mass tourists

perform tourism on German stages. The discussion focuses on three elements. Firstly, I examine the

casting and preparation of the performers. Secondly, I explore the performances on German tourist

stages, in respect to roles learned and also highlighting the possibility of improvised performances.

Lastly, I observe the setting of the stages in regard to allowed choreographies, stage direction and

power relations between categories of players.

The research is based on a phenomenological approach, appropriate to this project due to its

ethnographic character. Part of the study’s field research was conducted largely from 2011 to 2012,

both in China and Germany. In China, information was gathered by using open and semi-structured in-

depth expert interviews with ten representatives from the Chinese tourism industry, tourism boards,

as well as with tourism academics. In Germany, the ethnographic fieldwork consisted of participant

observations, semi-structured interviews and short questionnaires to forty Chinese outbound tourist

members of three group package tours organized by Chinese-German travel companies.

Complementary to tourist contributions, is information provided by the groups´ tour guides and tour

leaders during four semi-structured in-depth interview and “on the run” talks. Equally important are

my field notes, diaries, photos and videos. Furthermore, expert interviews are to be conducted with

German industry representatives, experts and academics in the summer of 2013.

This project argues that the examination of tourism practices and behaviours of Chinese outbound

organized mass tourists under the performance metaphor can provide further understandings on the

previously neglected tourism consumption of “non-Western” tourists. It will also further concur with

the recent de-differentiation between the everyday mundane and the extraordinary “other” in tourism

theory, by acknowledging that everyday conventions and habits inform touristic performances of

Chinese tourists in Germany.

PhD Candidate: Alma Berenice Pendzialek, MBA

Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU - Dep. of Tourism Geography)

Research first supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hans Hopfinger (KU)

Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt (FH-Westkueste, Heide)

August, 2013