Enacting Sustainable Tourism through Cultural Storytelling: The Role of Tour Guides

Abstract

This study aims to explore how tour guides enact sustainable tourism through cultural storytelling practices. While sustainable tourism discourse has largely focused on macro-level policies and destination governance, the everyday professional practices of frontline actors remain underexplored. Using a qualitative approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with tour guides operating in cultural tourism destinations to examine how their narrative practices contribute to the preservation and transmission of cultural values. The findings reveal that tour guides consistently maintain the authenticity of local narratives, avoid distorting stories for commercial purposes, and balance myth and historical facts in their interpretive delivery. Communicative strategies, including the use of humor to sustain visitor engagement, are employed without compromising cultural substance. Although many guides do not explicitly articulate their work within the conceptual framework of sustainable tourism, they demonstrate a strong commitment to cultural preservation and continuity. Differences emerge in the ability to conceptualize sustainability, particularly among guides with higher educational backgrounds. These findings suggest that sustainable tourism can be enacted through culturally grounded storytelling practices, positioning tour guides as key agents in sustaining intangible cultural heritage through everyday interpretive work.