Revisiting the impacts of tourism from the perspective of social space production: an ethnological study of the Muslim community in Sanya, Hainan Province, China

‘Tourism’ has been regarded as an essential driving force behind destination changes. On reflection, it is essentially not tourism, but the mechanisms underlying destination development process that lead to the changes. However, very few studies have explored these mechanisms with the majority of work simply comparing the pre- and post-tourism stages to conclude the effects of tourism on destinations. The current study builds on Lefebvre’s social space production epistemology to establish a conceptual framework to decipher the mechanisms. It was illustrated using the context of the Muslim community in Sanya, Hainan Province, China. Results demonstrate that the dynamic relationship between capital, culture and power initiated the production of the community space. Capital facilitated the production of ‘spatial practices’, which interacted with the ‘representations of space’ dominated by the (administrative) power and the ‘representational space’ produced by the Muslim culture. Theoretical implications of the framework for social changes are also discussed.