Integrating “Fish Skin” and Tourism: A Sustainable Livelihoods Approach

As a kind of handicrafts with strong social and cultural connotations, the production and consumption of fish skin handicrafts have a high potential to be integrated with tourism to enhance community livelihood sustainability. A sustainable livelihood approach is used in a fish skin tourism context in Jiejinkou Town, Heilongjiang Province, China, to examine critically the interactive relationships between “fish skin” and tourism. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with management officials, community leaders, representatives of fish skin handicrafts and village residents in four field investigations in 2020. Improvement in community livelihood sustainability was identified through the enhancement of livelihood diversity and choice. However, impacts on household livelihood sustainability varied as tourism participation is restricted by the level of livelihood assets. The increase of the within-community income gap may generate social problems in the long run. The current level of “fish skin” and tourism integration is limited. The history, culture and traditions related with fish skin handicrafts are not widely disseminated by local fish skin handicrafts producers. Opportunities for in-depth and diversified fish skin tourism experiences are being recognized, which calls for partnership with those involved in tourism. Practical implications are discussed to enhance fish skin handicrafts and tourism integration, boost local participation, enhance local benefits, and particularly, to engage those with lower levels of livelihood assets.