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Encountering the “familiar stranger”: Activating latent cultural identification among Vietnamese tourists in China
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DOI：10.1016/j.tourman.2026.105507.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Tourism studies have largely examined cultural identification through encounters with difference, while paying less attention to culturally proximate travel contexts. Drawing on schema theory, this study examines how latent cultural identification (LCI) emerges when sedimented cultural meanings become perceptible and interpretable during travel. Based on interviews with 41 Vietnamese tourists traveling in China, the findings indicate that material, social, and mediated cues make routinized meanings noticeable, while internalized cultural schemata help tourists interpret them in relation to their cultural self-understanding. Affective resonance amplifies this process by intensifying the salience and self-relevance of interpreted meanings. Behavioural responses vary across compliance, inquiry, reinterpretation, and co-creation, reflecting different degrees of self-reflection and social embeddedness. By highlighting the role of cultural schemata in LCI, this study extends tourism identity research and shows how LCI can help tourists locate their own culture within the wider world-cultural landscape, enrich personal meaning-making, and foster intercultural exchange.
Keywords:
Latent cultural identification
Intra-civilizational tourism
Cultural schema
Cultural cues
Vietnam
China
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