An analytical autoethnographic study of culture's role in transformative tourism experiences

Abstract

Transformations are a social process that has both psychological and social outcomes. However, current studies tend to neglect the social outcomes of transformations, i.e., social transformations, as transformative tourism experience (TE) studies emphasise the psychological transformations from travelling. This study examines tourists' social transformations from travelling to a different cultural environment. It draws upon a co-created TE perspective to expand on culture's role in TE using an analytical autoethnographic method triangulated with twenty bloggers travelling to Vietnam. The study also contributes to a better understanding of TE barriers during cultural consumption and identifying positive and negative (adverse) perspectives, behaviours and values resulting from tourists' cross-cultural experiences. Overall, it contributes to understanding culture's dynamic role in co-created TE. Finally, the study offers practical implications, namely improving cultural explanations in cultural materials to educate tourists, promoting good host-tourist relations, improving competencies in guides, and reviewing and creating a best practice for facilitating TE.