Born in a tour guide’s family: how can tourism employment fuel intergenerational social mobility?

Studying social mobility can help understand societal development and changes, but it is lacking in nowadays tourism research. Focusing on tour guides, the present paper concerns how tourism employment affects intergenerational social mobility. We interviewed 22 tour guide families in Wulingyuan, China, where tourism has been the main economic driver for over 40 years. Drawing on the concept of capital with thematic analysis, we found that tour guide as a job (1) enables household economic growth (2) enlarges household social capital with networks of tourism associates and valuable customers, (3) cultivates individual cultural capital growth through at-work knowledge acquisition, skill development, and vision expansion, and (4) jointly improves individual symbolic capital in mianzi accumulation (higher social status). Some of the capital can be transferred to their offspring, which fosters an upward intergenerational social mobile trend. The key to successful transfer is parenting. The present study contributes to studies of tourism development and societal growth, highlights the advantages of frontline tourism jobs in promoting long-term growth for both the practitioners and their families, and pinpoints critical factors behind such long-term growth. Theoretical, practical and policy implications are accordingly discussed.