Income Distribution, Tourist Commercialisation, and Hukou Status: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Tourism in Xidi, China

The prevalent tourism economic impact assessment methods such as input-output models and the tourism satellite accounts have difficulties when applied to a small geographic scale, such as a rural community. Alternative methods are necessary to examine the micro-interaction mechanism of tourism development and social change in such small villages. An alternative socioeconomic analysis useful for rural communities is introduced in this paper, and is applied in a case study of Xidi, a traditional village in China. The case analysis shows that Chinese social status, hukou, plays an important role as a catalyst in the simultaneous processes of income distribution and tourist commercialisation. The paper suggests that while traditional impact studies of the economy, socio-culture, and environment on larger scales are necessary, integrated socioeconomic analysis is helpful on smaller scales