Tourist destinations worldwide are adapting themselves to the homogenizing corporate culture of the tourism industry (globalization) while at the same time trying to maintain, or even increase, their distinctive identity (localization). Local tour guides are key actors in this double process. Previous research has analyzed how guiding narratives are manufactured and controlled at the local and national level, neglecting global influences. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist from the University of Pennsylvania will test the hypothesis that the degree to which guides are globally connected and networked significantly affects how they represent the destination in which they work to tourists. A sample of 75 local tour guides in Yogyakarta, a major cultural tourism destination in Indonesia, will serve as a case study. Participant observation of tour guiding, interviewing of guides and other key figures in the local tourism industry, network analysis of the guides' global connections, and an ethnographically informed survey will be used to analyze the relationship between global networking and local tour guiding. This study will contribute to theoretical and methodological issues in anthropology concerning globalization and tourism. It will further the doctoral training of a graduate student in anthropology as well as the methods training of an Indonesian undergraduate from Gadjah Mada University. The broader significance of the project includes the practical applications of the findings for the development and marketing of tourist destinations. The new knowledge this study will provide on how local tour guides rely on their global connections for preparing local tours will be particularly useful to those involved in tourism training, policy-making, development, and research.
