Pride in Transformation: A Rural Tourism Stakeholder View

Abstract

While pride is identified as a multilayered and complex emotion, tourism studies primarily focus on the pride generated by the presence of tourists acknowledging the residents’ culture and do not address all the categories of pride. This research gap is important to investigate because research indicates that pride is associated with residents’ perceived well-being, empowerment, and sense of belonging. We examine this contingency through the lens of Hume’s Theory of Pride to investigate how destination stakeholders express multiple categories of pride (e.g., vicarious pride and self-pride) and the manifestations of pride (e.g., prestige and caring) in a rural tourism context. We apply a multi-method approach that combines focus group discussions and personal interviews with 51 stakeholders (i.e., public officials, residents, and tourism business owners) from four rural tourism destinations. These destination stakeholders reveal more thorough and powerful meanings of pride that expand Hume’s theory and provide insights to practitioners.