Making or remaking people and places through festivals: an island tourism perspective

PurposeThis study aims to investigate two festivals that are held annually in Hong Kong, to explore the essence of festival meanings – the extent to which the perceived sociocultural benefits of festivals articulate the production of a sense of place (SOP) and its respective locality.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilises a comparative analysis approach to examine visitors’ views of the festivals. It constructs a theoretical framework of the interaction mechanism between tourism and place evolution by relying largely on the notion of place as the centre of meanings. Data sources include interview, questionnaire, observation and a literature review.FindingsThe findings suggest festival meanings are crucial elements in fostering SOP and shaping the identification of place uniqueness. Being part of local tradition and tourism resource, festival representations are not only passive reflections of prevailing cultural values drawn from current stereotypes and images, but they also play a prominent role in shaping values, behaviours and identities by contributing to the socialisation process. Cultural regeneration through festivals may ultimately contribute to the ontological construction of a place.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the unknown profile of the participants to both festivals, this study employed a convenience sampling method which might have limited the power of generalising the research outcome to other festivals. Besides, this study overlooked the potential differences (or lack of difference) in perceptions of the local residents who visited both festivals for the first time and other residents. Future studies may consider other aspects of festivals and place conceptions widely used in the tourism research field, to validate whether additional insights or hidden festival-to-place relationships can be found in the process of hosting and promoting festivals.Originality/valueThe existing studies of tourism–place relationship, especially those repelling scientific-positivist methodological paradigm, tend to overemphasise the role of tourism in unmaking places. In contrast, the interrogation of island festivals as the centre of meaning offers an alternative perspective to highlight the process that tourism dialectically contributes to place evolution. Tourism unmakes places while possessing a dialectic role of making places.