Dissertation research: Global connections and local tour guiding in Indonesia

世界各地的旅游目的地都在适应旅游业同质化的企业文化（全球化），同时试图保持甚至增加其独特的身份（本地化）。当地导游是这一双重过程中的关键角色。之前的研究分析了指导性叙事是如何在地方和国家层面上被制造和控制的，而忽略了全球影响。宾夕法尼亚大学的一位文化人类学家的论文研究将检验这样一个假设，即导游在全球范围内的联系和网络化程度会显著影响他们如何向游客展示他们工作的目的地。将以印度尼西亚主要文化旅游胜地日惹的75名当地导游为样本，作为案例研究。通过对导游的参与观察、对导游和当地旅游业其他关键人物的访谈、对导游全球联系的网络分析以及民族志调查来分析全球网络与当地导游之间的关系。本研究将有助于人类学中有关全球化与旅游的理论和方法问题。它将进一步对一名人类学研究生进行博士培训，并对Gadjah Mada大学的一名印度尼西亚本科生进行方法培训。该项目的更广泛意义包括将研究结果实际应用于旅游目的地的开发和营销。这项研究将提供关于当地导游如何依靠他们的全球联系来准备当地旅游的新知识，这对那些参与旅游培训、政策制定、发展和研究的人特别有用。

Tourist destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing corporate culture of the tourism industry (globalization) while at the same time trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctive identity (localization). Local tour guides are key actors in this double process. Previous research has analyzed how guiding narratives are manufactured and controlled at the local and national level, neglecting global influences. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania will test the hypothesis that the degree to which guides are globally connected and networked significantly affects how they represent the destination in which they work to tourists. A sample of 75 local tour guides in Yogyakarta, a major cultural tourism destination in Indonesia, will serve as a case study. Participant observation of tour guiding, interviewing of guides and other key figures in the local tourism industry, network analysis of the guides' global connections, and an ethnographically informed survey will be used to analyze the relationship between global networking and local tour guiding. This study will contribute to theoretical and methodological issues in anthropology concerning globalization and tourism. It will further the doctoral training of a graduate student in anthropology as well as the methods training of an Indonesian undergraduate from Gadjah Mada University. The broader significance of the project includes the practical applications of the findings for the development and marketing of tourist destinations. The new knowledge this study will provide on how local tour guides rely on their global connections for preparing local tours will be particularly useful to those involved in tourism training, policy-making, development, and research.