Place Identity : How Tourism Changes Our Destination

According to the social identity theory, once people have categorized themselves and others into different group, they will contrast themselves and others, and their thinking and behaviors will become bounded up with in-group membership. There will be an emotional significance to our identification with a group, when outsiders come into a destination, indigenes will find the differences between the outsiders and themselves, then divide them into different groups that can reinforce the identification about their group even awake and strengthen place identity. Based on social identity theory and the comparative case study of Lijiang (a world culture heritage in China) and Palma (a tourist island in Spain), this essay is going to explain how tourism awakes place identity and affects identity boundary which causes a series phenomena that happened in our daily life no matter where we are, such as culture recover, maintaining the link with space, in-group favoritism, out-group bias and conflicts.


Introduction
Over decades, many researches argued that culture crisis is caused by tourism, most of them focus on the cultural commoditization and cultural authenticity, but there are few researches noticed the impacts on place identity and how the link between identity and destination social change, especially in China.In this article, I try to show how tourism effects on identity and the interaction between identity and society development processing and prove it is so common that even in the different end of the world also present the same situation.Through the power of capital, and the relationship between people and space, there are series consequences.In the first and second parts of this article, I will explain identity theory which is the basement theory of this article, through that way we can know why identity is so important for our thinking and behavior, and how it affects our daily life.In the third part, I will show a series evidences that how identity affects social changes by original case study, then I will get the conclusion of this essay that tourism can awake and strengthen place identity and affect social identity boundary.

Self-Identity
People confirm themselves by selecting and enacting identities (Heise & MacKinnon, 2010).Self-identity is that you can identify who you are and distinguish both yourself and others, you can know that you are separate and different from others.It is the method that helps us to realize the world and ourselves.Self-identity makes everyone becoming the unique one, defining them through their demographics (e.g., age, gender), unique characteristics (e.g., intelligent, interesting), values and beliefs, role identities (e.g., father, manager), and combination with the different experiences (private and public) (Heise & MacKinnon, 2010) and memories.People's behaviors in interaction with others in social set-tings are governed by their conception of themselves, so self-identity is so important that helps us to set the standards which bounds our behaviors and as a gyroscope keeps behaviors consistent (Jetten, Spears, & Manstead, 2001).
growth (Inguglia & Musso, 2013).People classify themselves as an in-group member to establish the self-identity and social identity and also to allow individuals to recognize other humans by type, in this way, people can get power and support from their group, get self-confident though being a member of a nice group and draw on mental constructs that set expectations and guide behavior as they navigate their social interactions (Cuhadar & Dayton, 2011).There is a normal example, if someone comes from a beautiful city, every time others praise the city, the one will be proud of that.Besides that, individuals classify others considering their similarities and differences with themselves.Through categorization, the similarities between self and in-group members are accentuated whereas the differences between self and out-group members are exaggerated (Hogg & Abrams, 1988;Tajfel, 1982).That is, individuals create a perception that they are identical to other members of the same category and behave accordingly with the category membership.
Individuals prefer to define themselves through their immersion in relationships with others and with a distinct group and find out their self-evaluation from this in-group identity (J.Breckler & G. Greenwald, 1986).Group identity will provide a sense of belonging and a sense of distinctiveness for the in-group members (Brewer, 1991).Connectedness and belonging entail fundamental differences, in this way the self is construed.In social identity process, members of a group come to internalize group membership to their self-concepts and evaluate themselves and others from the view of their membership in specific groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1986).Furthermore, instead of being too personalized or too inclusive, individuals prefer to define themselves in terms of distinctive category memberships, Social identity theory suggests that, strong identification with an in-group make people's behaviors are bound strongly with the in-group membership (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
Since most of time, minorities feel more insecure and threat than majority, one possible way to cope with threat is having a strong orientation toward the in-group and that also will drive them to discriminate the out-group.Due to this reason, minority groups usually try to compensate feelings of insecurity by strengthening their positive social identity through discriminating against the majority (Simon, Aufderheide, & Kampmeier, 2008) and produce a negative feelings towards out-groups.As the research of Crocker and his colleagues, perception of discrimination based on one's group membership may make the individual identify with in-group more strongly and may increase the rejection of out-group members (Crocker, Voelkl, Testa, & Major, 1991).Correspondingly, in-group identification of minority group members was found to be stronger than majority group members.That is to say, the relative social position of the in-group determines people's level of identification with their groups; the lower the status of the group, the stronger the connection.
Group identity has been shown to be a central concept in understanding phenomena in social psychology, sociology, anthropology and political science (Chen & Li, 2009).Individuals compare their group with other (out) groups in order to evaluate their position and to achieve a positive and distinct identity (Tajfel, 1982).Through these comparisons individuals realize their group's value and relative status.

Intergroup Bias
The concept of "intergroup bias" is defined as an individual tend to favor or evaluate his/her own group more positively than other groups (Tajfel, 1982).Base on categorization, people can favor their group and/or discriminate the out-group.Tajfel and his colleagues (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) claimed that categorization may drive individuals to behave differentially towards different members (in-group and out-group) spontaneously even when they gain no benefit from this behavior.Furthermore, even exploration of intergroup similarities and in-group dissimilarities can't reduce in-group favoritism (Tajfel et al., 1971).It was clearly shown that even when there is no conflicts between different groups, people still display a kind of in-group favoritism.Through favor their in-group, people can achieve a positive group distinctiveness that will protect, enhance, and preserve the value of their group.It can be observed through discriminative behaviors toward out-group, through prejudiced attitudes, and stereotyped cognitions.Discriminating out-group is one of the ways to show intergroup bias (Akbaş, 2010).

Place Identity
Place identity is a kind of group identity.In other words, place can be seen as a group criterion, people who come from the same place is easily to form a group.Desires to preserve ecological or architectural characteristics of a place have a direct impact on the strength of place attachment felt by individuals, notably through self-pride and self-identity.People experience stronger attachments to places that they can identify with or otherwise feel proud to be a part of (Scannell & Gifford, 2010).The idea here is that by participating in local social activities, a person can develop a sense of belonging which is a feeling of the relationship between place and self, other in-group members and self.The feeling of belonging can be so strong to help them establish self-identity, and let them try to improve themselves to match the place.Once someone thinks himself or herself is linked with the place strongly, place can become a symbol of self (McCabe & Stokoe, 2004), he or she will try to protect the place benefit these behaviors can be caused by practical benefits (e.g., economic benefits) or mental benefits (e.g., honor).Since place can affect emotional preferences, usually in-group members have the same preferences (McCabe & Stokoe, 2004), so group members usually have the same attitude towards other groups, out-group bias is easy to happen.Besides that, when adverse consequences appear, in-group members always shirk the responsibility.
Social identity theory argues that one of the key determinants of group biases is the need to improve self-identity.The desire to view one's self positively is transferred onto the group, creating a tendency to view one's own group in a positive light, and outside groups in a negative light (Billig & Tajfel, 1973).That is, in-group members will find a reason, no matter how insignificant it is, to prove their own group is superior.That's the reason why conflicts between different groups occur easily.
In a role of in-group member, they can do the things that they will never do as an individual.Because of that, in-group identity is also important to social movement participants, political activists, and others banding together to fight for or against social change by working on shared goals and action plans.
Social identity theory is used in many areas but tourism, we rarely link identity with tourism.It is normal for us to ignore the truth that we are human being (Yifu, 2013).With place identity awaking up, some conflicts between different groups will be more and more serious.In previews researches, there are many cases that tourism caused social demonstration.It is not only a process by which a set of individuals interacts to create a shared sense of identity or group consciousness ("Identity", n.d.), also the reflection of the power of identity, which intensifies the conflicts between local residents, authority, and tourists.
Place identity refers to the group size, property, place, history, race and other factors ("The Research on APPlieation of CognitiveMaP-As the Spatial Cognition of xi' an Tourism Image for Example", 2003).It reflects the familiarity of individuals or groups for the place as well as insiders conscious (Xiang yang, Dong fang, Guo xing, & De ming, 2015), so most of time, place identity will easily happen when individuals who share the same history, the same custom or they are the same minority.So in this article, I choose the minorities group to be the object.As the vulnerable groups, minorities are more impressionable by the culture shocking.It is not easy for them to get much information about the outside, and they have not formed a stable value and culture system either, once the heterogeneous culture flood in, they may easily feel the cultural shock, their self-identity will be strengthen by the different values and tourists gazing.Besides that, the insecurity sense spurs them to join a group which can give them the shield (like a kind pride of in-group, sense of belonging) to resist out-side power and that reacts on self-identity.
It is interactive that individual have a strong place identity, they will find what they can get from the group relationship, and establish self-identity, and this emotion will reinforce the link between both themselves and the group.Since tourism activity related to many different subjects, and these subjects exchange their culture, view of the conmen things, their behavior norms, and in this process, groups are formed (Xiang et al., 2015) and the boundary of groups become more and more clear.

Place Identity Was Awaked and Strengthened
Self-identity is producing with our growth, we depends it to distinguish who we are, place identity also exist in our daily life, but most of time, we can't observe clearly.There is a common sense of place identity that can't exist as a separate object without out-group, it interact with heterogeneous comparison.Local residents' self-identity is not so strong at the beginning of tourism development, even they know who they are, the distinction between self and others is still not so obvious.In-group homogeneity is especially strong when no motivational forces exist to distinguish the self from others within the group (Brewer, 1993;Simon, Pantaleo, & Mummendey, 1995).According to the social identity theory, the consequence of self-categorization is that in-group members tend to emphasize the similarities between both self and other in-group members, and emphasize the differences between both self and out-group members.This accentuation occurs for all aspects, for instance behavioral norms, speech styles, attitudes for common things, beliefs and values, and other properties that are considered to be related to in-group categorization (Stets & Burke, 2000).When there is few tourist, the indigenous are very similar, same language, same customers, same life style, face the same problems, so they can't realize the difference with others either get a strong in-group feeling，in other word, it means in the beginning of tourism development (or before tourism came), indigenes live in similar groups, don't have a clear self-categorization.With tourists flowing, the motivational forces appear.
Besides the obvious appearance difference, the word tourists sometimes is a meaning or a symbol of difference, it means the word self has represented a classification, it reflects the power of different groups (e.g., In Seychelles tourists equid rich).This kind of attribute indicates tourism can promote groups formation.Thus a series phenomenon arrives in turn.Since the history invasion of England, Welsh was marginalized in a long term, through tourism blossomed, the distinguished character was portrayed, the image of Welsh was spreaded out, in other words, tourism offered a chance to the place identity to rebuild and strengthen (Pitchford, 1995).Through the case study of Rollin' Down the River Festival (America), Bres and Davis found that tourism did lead to a positive self-identity for the local group (De Bres & Davis, 2001) and in some cases, tourism even be the root cause of place identity generation (Smith & Smith, 1989).Tourism acts as a catalyst for the re-interpretation of identity among members of the local group who depend on or are otherwise affected by the industry (Jamison, 1999).The research of Cajun of America present tourism turned around the place identity, they used its waning livelihoods of fishing and hunting patterns, unique forms of music and freedom spirit has successfully rebuilt its place identity (Esman, 1984).This is an interesting phenomenon, through it we can find how the tourism, the capital impact destination society.

Method
To find out the link between tourism and place identity and the consequence of place identity awaking, I had interviewed 35 responses randomly in Lijiang, China from 4. Oct. to 16. Oct. in 2015 and interviewed 3 persons in Mallorca, Spain, from June to August in 2015.All of the responses are indigenes.In Lijiang, there are 24 women and 11 men, the age distribution from 17 to 83 years old, 63% are in 30-45 years old group.Through this research, there is no clear difference between different genders.But the age can affect their attitude, older will hold a stranger negative attitude towards out-groups than younger.And in Mallorca, these persons are my friends, because of language barrier, I didn't interview many people, it is a long term to get the original material.
I choose Lijiang, this little town because it was a remote needy and uninformed town even in ten years ago, but now it is a famous tourism city in China.And there is only NAXI (Note 1) living in Lijiang, it is easier to discuss the tourism impacts.According to the identity theory, the minority is easier to be influence by outsides.Of course, the another reason is I had been there in 3 years ago, and it changed too much than I obtained from books or other media, I really want to know why and how it converted from an idyll to a commercial city.
And I choose Mallorca, because I had been to Mallorca more than 8 months, and I found the phenomenon in China also exist on the other side of the world.I think it will be more interesting and persuasive if I put them together.I want to show there is something that is common of whole human society.

Place Identity Awaking
In Lijiang case, capital becomes the biggest motivation to awake local residents place identity.Lijiang is an ancient town which has a history of over 800 years, before 1996, its' name only spread in adventurers cycle.Tourism blossom came from 1996 because of a large earthquake, this earthquake was widely reported by domestic and international media.Lijiang became famous not only the earthquake, but also the special building structure, there were no building collapsed in the center of the old town even it was a 7 magnitude earthquake, thus, all over the world shifted their attention to the little ancient town (Xiao, 2013).Then the old town was scribed on World Culture Heritage list by UNESCO in 1997, this also promoted tourism development.Tourism even converts the remote, agrarian old town to a famous international city, and this industry also became the only pillar industry of Lijiang.In 1995, GDP of the little town was only about 30 million, and this number soared to more than 35 billion in 2014 ("Lijiang 2014 Statistical Report on National Economy and Social Development", n.d.).Since the tourism development, more and more outsiders carrying capital come to Lijiang to find new opportunities.As the respondents told me, because rent fee is pretty high for the backward town, now, almost the houses in Lijiang old town were rented out to the outsiders for business.It also means almost the local residents had to move out to the new city and make room for economy.Capital changed the city morphology, and sent a signal that all the outsiders are rich, smart, and can management a successful business that the local residents can't do.In other words, indigenes found a new world and new life style under the influence of capital; they focus on the differences between themselves and the outsiders, group formed.Indigenes depicted outsider image then strength it in their daily life, it is a kind of out-group bias.
Another motivation pushes place identity awaking is eyes of others.As has increasingly been emphasized in symbolic interactionist theory, people are motivated to verify self-identity in the eyes of others (Jetten et al., 2001).When tourists flow into a marginal destination, they take their eyes which represent power to intrude the local culture.Under the power, something must be changed.Through the eyes of outsiders (such as tourists and "rich" shop owners) with the different appearance, language and culture, which represented the particular and power, in the comparison self-identity of indigenes is strengthened.When we feel the sense of ourselves, the next step is to choose a group to join in.As human beings, we inherited the innate feature genome Need to belong from our ancient ancestors (Marilynn & Gardner, 1996).We don't like uncertain things which are almost accompanied by dangers and "Need to belong" is exactly a fundamental to avoid uncertain situation so that we can protect ourselves from the dangerous world.

Maintain the Link with Land
There is an interesting thing when I interviewed indigenes in Lijiang.All the time they answered my questions, the subject always was We Naxi or Our Lijiang, solo We or Lijiang never show in their words.In other words, they always linked themselves with the minority or the land, that's a kind of place attachment (Manzo, 2006).Correspondingly, indigenes also have a very clear diacritical word to distinguish They Outsider Businessman and You Tourists.This situation also happened in the other side of the word, Palma, which is the capital of Mallorca island in Spain.Mallorca has become a mass tourism destination (Picornell, 2014), and now, half century passed, Palma still contain a strong appealing for tourists, but their self-identity and place identity don't change too much.When I ask "are you Spanish?".
They always told me "Mallorquin" (Note 2), but not Spanish.The word is composed of Mallorca which clearly point out the land link.It means they have the strong sense of belonging to this Mallorca Group.The relationship between the residents and place is so important because their daily life and work are attached to a place, the relation with place is based on experience and activity, and it is from this perspective that their reads the situation, claiming that any other local would share the same understanding.
It is the character of place identity, place becomes a symbol of self (McCabe & Stokoe, 2004), it is more obvious in minorities areas or economy backward places, place identity strength the self-identity, so when they talk about themselves, they always try to emphasize the link with place.
To prove place identity is linked with tourism development process and it can present a different sort in different stage, I compared another old town Baisha which is closed to Lijiang and also inhabited by Naxi, but haven't highly developed, I find indigenes live here don't have a strong feeling of their hometown as people of Lijiang Old Town.It is not so often to use "We Naxi" or this kind of words.They don't praise it neither complain it, but most of them want to the government develop their town quickly so that they can earn more money and live a better life.Conversely, all of the original residents in Lijiang Old Town have a strong feeling of it and like it used to be, always told me how clear the water in the old town, how beautiful of the architectures, and complained the dirty and noisy now.Almost of them described a peaceful and beautiful idyll to me, they are smiling while they are talking about this memory, and bitter face while they are talking about present situation or another groups, Their attitudes are so similar.It is easy to find they are so proud of their own old town and have a hostility attitude towards other groups.

Culture Recover
Previous researches have proved that tourism promote the revival of local culture.It can be seemed as a result of being more in-group.Actually it is a kind of response to tourism intrusion.Tourism is a kind of cultural consumption, the commercialization of tourism will inevitably exist.Commercialization has been unquestionable impact on the local culture, through economic measures, tourism force people to improve their states of knowledge, which enhance the pride of self, and it is the essential part of self-identity.
For instance, through being the guards for tourists, Nepalese Sherpas got the financial rewards and established their own confidence and to reconstitute traditional productive relations in their new economy (Adams, 1992).For the capital, Mayas brushed up their disappeared traditional knowledge which is applied to tourism activities (Medina, 2003).Maori had been assimilated since the Christianity spread in New Zealand and lose their traditional culture, but when they find it was the vital identity attraction for tourists as the original and ethnical inhabitants in New Zealand, they even won the game with local authority (Graburn, 2009).From these researches, we can see no matter what the original intention is, the fact is tourism revived the destination culture and stimulated local economy recover even helped indigenes wining on politics.It protects indigenes benefits.In the comparison with heterogeneous cultures, local residents rediscovered the importance of their own culture and special identity.
We came to Lijiang to do the field research in 2015, and interviewed about 35 persons.In the case study of mine, Dongba culture (a typical culture of Naxi people who are the only minority in Lijiang Old Town) is also revived with local tourism development.
"We have Dongba culture, the most famous one is Dongba Script, and the paper of Dongba.But we can't recognize Dongba Script, it' s only used by Dongba, a special religious group in our minority." Destination wants to attract tourism, they try to excavate the local culture and hope excessively propagandizes itself, under the authority power, advertisements, books, videos, guidebooks about local history and cultural customs become more and deeper inside, it led more people (e.g., local residents, tourists) can get deeply involved in local knowledge and indigenous can feel the recognition of outside thus strengthen the place identity, they are proud of the in-group member, and readily admit the place identity of themselves.
With tourism development, more and more tourists flooded into a little town, they take photos, gaze the local people's life, produce meanings, and invest in many different ways.As I say, minorities are more easily influenced by the tourism development processing, so when they see these things that they have never see, it gives them a chance to find the value of themselves and the original place.So it's not difficult to understand that place identity awakening can promote the indigenes and local government to realize the importance of the local culture and resources and take some action to protect them, it is an action to protect in-group benefits.But from our research, indigenes don't really know how and why the Dongba culture is so import for them, they know that only because government and dealers disseminate the concepts.They know it is useful for the tourism industry.Actually, they don't use Dongba Script either the paper of Dongba in their normal life, they even don't think their children should learn the local language.
"There are too many language in the world, there is no time for him to acquire local language which can't be used in the outside world."--response 3

In-Group Favoritism and Out-Group Discrimination: The Conflicts Prelude
Obviously, tourism plays an important role in the processing of Lijiang.In 1997, this town was inscribed on the World Heritage list, but it was criticized by UNESCO because of the commercialization in 2003 and 2007.And the attitudes of outside world towards Lijiang also changed a lot, criticism become more and more aloud.And the conflicts of different groups in Lijiang become more and more serious.It is an interesting phenomenon for me and I really want to know why it can turn to this situation and how indigenes think about outside criticism.

"how do you think about the criticism towards Lijiang?"
"All the adverse aspects are totally caused by tourists and the shop owners, they ruined our environment, and produce a bad destination image, and it destroy the beautiful image of our Lijiang.We, Naxi people, are loyalty in love, never do something unchaste.You know, many years ago, there were not so many tourists or shops, we, Naxi, live in the old town, life is peaceful.Mountain cover with snow, the stream is drinkable, the grand is clean, and there were no thieves or frauds.But now, you can see, cutpurses rage, water dirty, snow disappeared, all of this caused by you, outsiders, and they, shop owners."--respondense 8 Indigenes think they have good tradition and custom, they have a fabulous environment, they love their homeland and always protect it, so when there is someone tend to criticize their hometown or the local people, they respond a firmer stand.
When people distinguish different groups, they also form a different attitude towards these groups (Pruitt & Kim, 2013).Humans have an innate tendency to favor their own group over others, proclaiming how "each group nourishes its own pride and vanity, boasts itself superior, exists in its own divinities, and looks with contempt on outsiders" (Sumner, 1906).In-group members usually have the same attitude towards outsiders.With the processing of tourism, indigenes tend to protect in-group members and keep distance away from out-group members to hold their in-group benefits.It becomes an invisible barrier to block the communication with different groups, so when the preferences is formed, it will be fortified in the blocked box ( Pruitt & Kim, 2013) and finally become a kind of Out-group derogation and the fuse of different groups conflicts.
Most of time, place identity awakening is with the capitalization and land gentrification, it makes many indigenous people lose their homeland, so place identity awakening can cause many conflicts between different groups especially with local residents.There is an interesting example in Franquesa's research, a dilemma happened between Mique who is a baker in the old center of Palma, and Ingrid, a Swedish woman who bought a house near Miquel's bakery, the conflict between both of them only because the chimney smoking of the bakery in the morning (Franquesa, 2011).In this case, we can see with the development of tourism, original residents will realize that they have the sovereign of this land.It is not only the conflict between two men, it is the conflict between the local resident and new neighborhood, it is about two groups.Local group think they have the right of control of the space, it is a strong attribution.Since the tourism development, they are losing the right.As an in-group member, he or she will want to protect the benefit that they ever had, but individual power is faint, the original residents can do nothing but move away from the land to avoid to be evicted when they face the powerful capital and authority.And also for the power distance, the animosity of in-group members will be strengthened, conflicts is unavoidable.
In Lijiang, the situation is the same.The implication is that the observed group interested relationships should be understood as having been aggravated by tourism.The main conflict is not between tourists and indigenes, as some kind of floating population, tourists come and go, so it' s not so easy to have a sustained conflicts.And indigenes know tourists means revenue exactly.But tourism not only involves tourists, it also brought other outsiders who want to take up a business in destination.In Lijiang, the conflict is in connection with shop owners and indigenes.
"How do you think the outsiders who come here for business?""They are too crafty, they rented our house in a low price, and earn great money with it, they cheated us.And they ruined our Lijiang, but we can do nothing with it."

--response15
Though this words, we can see the main point of contention is land leasing.Indigenes think the rent fee is low and unfair, but when I interviewed the businessman, they told me, "The rent fee is pretty high, indigenes are so cunning and defy the low, willful inflation of prices even we have the contract.It is too hard to management business here, maybe we can't do that anymore.We help them to build this place, without us, here would still be a backward place."

--response21
"How do you think about Lijiang?Do you like it now?""Of course, it's my home, I love it, and all the Lijiang people must love it.But as you see, now here is too aloud, too many shops whose the owners are all outsiders, they destroy our life space, grab the benefits of tourism, they are too crafty, we Naxi, don't like them… About 7 or 8 years ago, our Lijiang is pretty peaceful, but now, all of the houses rented out, all the local people moved away.I lost all my old friends, so I don't have choice, I have to move out.I can't recognize it now, when I walk in the old town, I feel like I'm an outsider walk in a strange place, it's not my hometown, I don't know what it is."

--respondent 12
The respondent 12 is a manager of a local pharmacy, when she said that words, she was so upset and angry.Form her words, we can find something.First, she has a strong feeling of belonging to Lijiang.Second she doesn't like shop owners who came from the outside world, and thinks they grab the benefits of tourism.Third, she feels helpless and indignant when she faces the situation that all her friends move away.
All my respondents, there is no one showing a sense of responsibility of this situation, they never think many years ago, they rented out the houses by their own willing, so they should also rest the responsibility for the consequence.Both indigenes and outsiders think innocent of themselves and claim all the faults caused by other groups.
Tourist contact may result in unforeseen outcomes (Jamison, 1999), in this case, we can see how the tourism impacts place identity and changes the local society.Besides the local landscape, it also changes the local social network.Place identity is closely tied to the land and local network or we can say in-group membership.Place becomes an object detached from them, transforming place into a landscape or a spectacle to be compared, evaluated, and possessed, but not "dwelt within" (Franquesa, 2011).This is why the outsiders come from outside world never think Lijiang is their home no matter how long they live here, only a place to conduct a business.But for indigenes, here is their homeland, is the place they growing, living, and carrying memories.This is also the discrepancy between local groups and outsiders groups.

Identity Boundary Extending
Pedro, a tour guide from the main land of Spain and living Palma more than 25 years told me "when I move to Palma, they told me Mallorquin is the man whose family were born and raised for at least four generations.But now, my children, they think they are Mallorquin definitely, because they born here.But I still don't know my identity, and sometimes I feel confused." Though this example, we can see two interesting phenomena.First, on the aspect of original residents, we can find the place identity boundary is extending, without the extending, Pedro' s children should not claim they are Mallorquin, because it need the social confirm, so it means local residents also have the same opinion.We can find Mallorquin is not limited in born here and raised for four generations, any one born here or even get married here will be think as a Mallorquin.Obviously tourism is also the important reason in this situation.In 2014 the Balearic Islands received 11,363,645 foreign tourists (Instituto de Estudios Turísticos, n.d.-b).In summer, it can be the most popular destination even beyond Cataluna (Instituto de Estudios Turísticos, n.d.-a).With the large number of tourists, there are many romantic stories in this island, many outsiders (Note3) (or the one not Mallorquin) get married with the local residents.When we talk space, we must focus attention on relations, people' s life and experience is rooted in the space, in their culture, in their history (Cohen, Butler, & Hinch, 1996), the special relations will link people and the space, but I must point out although there is the special relation, it still needs another elements, the time and memory to work.There is the reason why Pedro can't make sure his place identity even though he lives here more than 25 years.There is a gap in his memory within the land.This is the second I want to say, tourism can extend identity boundary through culture communication, but group barrier still exist, once someone have the allegiance to a group, his or her thinking and behavior still be bounded up with this group.

Conclusion
The tourism development pattern of old town in China is hyping destination, attracting investment funds through policy measures, for instance, sale or rent out the ancient house in a low price or promise a tax break.This article reveals how tourism changes impacts indigenes life style and concepts then impacts the destination social development processing.And find a paradoxical phenomenon, indigenes want to get more money from tourism and live a better life, but they don't like the business men who truly bring money and promote local economy.Most of time, indigenes think themselves are innocent even only the victim of tourism, they never think they rent out the house totally by their own willing and should be response for the consequences.
First, tourism emphasizes the difference between outsiders and indigenes, forces them to classify themselves and tourists, under the power of the intereaction of identity, indigenes are forced to be a whole one.
Second, Capital poured in, a mass of tourists flowed in, and foreign businessmen came in, all of this promotes the group forming.Indigenes values and life styles were changed by the coaction of I mentioned above.In the eyes of heterogeneous groups, place identity has been awaked and strengthened.They get a strong sense of belonging, be proud of their own group, indigenes find the value of local culture and generate a sense of belonging with the building and the homeland, self-identity was strengthened.Out-group derogation was produced, indigenes strength the difference between themselves and others, and think all the faults were caused by others (shop owners who come from outside, tourists).
Third, once the group has been formed, in-group members will tend to protect in-group benefits and have the out-group derogation that led to the conflicts between indigenes and outsiders.Here, the conflicts are not physical, but people are the bedrock of a place, this kind of favoritism or bias are also very important for the future of destination.When there are groups, group barrier is existent.When group barrier is hard, conflicts are more easily caused.When there are groups, group barrier is existent.When group barrier is hard, conflicts are more easily caused.
Besides, tourism promotes the combination of different cultures, so it can extend the boundary of social identity.Tourism is like a spark to fire the kindle (the identity and capital), and then the steppe is fired.Everything is linked and can't escape from the processing.