An exploratory study of the experience of VFR tourists: a culture shock perspective

AbstractReversed culture shock is introduced as a surrogate for reverse culture shock to study the experience of tourists from developing countries visiting friends and relatives (VFR) residing in a developed country. The established concept of reverse culture shock postulates a state of emotional being, wherein negative feelings about one's own culture occur upon returning home. Instead, these tourists tend to romanticize their native culture and idealize their country of origin during their visit. This contemporary culture shock presents as a reactive state to their stigmatization in the country visited, resulting in psychological shocks. Culture shock and reverse culture shock have widely been studies from the Western prism. This article uses stigma and metaperception to study tourist-host encounter in ticklish situations, and offers a new perspective on VFR travel. Suggestions for further research are proposed.