Catch me if you can: informal tourism employment of locals in scenic-oriented rural communities

The expansion of the tourism industry has generated a plethora of informal job opportunities. However, existing literature has not thoroughly explored the extensive involvement of local residents in rural areas in informal tourism employment. This study focuses on the Fujian Tulou villages in China and employs the fieldwork method to investigate the phenomenon of informal tourism employment among local residents in scenic-oriented rural communities. The findings indicate that the dearth of employment prospects in rural areas, coupled with China's distinctive rural land ownership system and the support from the rural social network, are the primary drivers motivating locals to participate in informal tourism employment. Locals employ tactics such as camouflage, tacit collusion, lurking, and covert actions to engage in informal tourism employment while navigating the regulations imposed by scenic area management. In efforts to standardize management within scenic areas, both local governments and tourism management companies are implementing measures such as offering formal employment opportunities and profit-sharing arrangements to incentivize the regularization of local employment in the tourism sector.