Social contact theory and attitude change through tourism: Researching Chinese visitors to North Korea

Drawing on 34 interviews with Chinese visitors to North Korea, this paper adopts the social contact theory to examine their attitude change through tourism. The paper first examines how Chinese tourists imagine North Korea as a tourism destination prior to their visits. Then the paper focuses on both the regulated and agentive dimensions involved in their travel, asking how individual Chinese tourist negotiates with the externally imposed restrictions to obtain more tourist-host contact. Third, it identifies both positive and negative post-trip attitude changes. In doing so, the paper creates a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of tourism conducted between China and North Korea which are perceived as “friendly” neighbors with conflicts. Apart from offering empirical and policy implications, this paper extends the use of intergroup social contact theory by focusing on a destination with restrictions on tourist-host contact.