Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao

Witte, Alexandra

Abstract

This article examines how various stakeholders’ practices on the ground mobilise and immobilise the Chamagudao’s heritage as a historic trade and caravan route. The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Yunnan, China, following movements of tourists, guides, residents and information on the remaining trails of the Chamagudao. It outlines how nodes, constructed by state actors and touristic media, rather than the lines of mobile heritage primarily constitute the Chamagudao, and the implications for tourists’ awareness and understanding of the Chamagudao as mobile heritage. Explicitly mobile practices occurring along its trajectories are challenging the nodal interpretations of this historic route. The article offers a mobile perspective on assessing the opportunities and challenges faced by tourism routes in China in the governments bid to develop these as mobile heritage destinations.

Citation

Witte, A. (2023). Tourism routes through a mobile lens: The case of China’s Chamagudao. Tourist Studies, 23(3), 181-207. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687976231189834

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 2, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-09
• Deposit Date: Aug 8, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 8, 2023
• Print ISSN: 1468-7976
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-3206
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 181-207
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14687976231189834
• Keywords: China, ethnography, heritage construction, heritage tourism, hiking, mobile heritage, mobilities, tourism routes, trails