Tourism border-making: A political economy of China's border tourism

This paper identifies changes in borderland tourism and their bordering consequences on the Daluo-Mongla border in Xishuangbanna, China. It identifies three distinctive phases: (a) phase one (1991-2001)-rapid growth of organized cross-border tourist flow, (b) phase two (2002 2011)-stagnation and collapse of formal tourism sector yet emerging illegal cross-border tourist flow, and (c) phase three (2012-present)-resurrection and transition of border tourism. It illustrates the border-making agency of tourism, arguing tourism development at the border can be viewed as a re-bordering force. It analyzes an evolutionary process of changing power structures, namely a dominant control of local states and market forces, a partial power shift towards national state and border communities, and a new dominance by the Chinese state.