Paper long abstract:

Due to the 'post-productivist transition' that has brought about new demands made on rural space, rural communities are increasingly engaging in new tourism-related activities. At the same time people are moving into rural areas looking for a better quality of life. These in-movers often have different perspectives on how local development should be achieved. The emergence of new economic and social organisation as a result of transforming rural needs inevitably draws attention of anthropology whose concern with rural communities dates back to the very origin of the discipline. This paper investigates the process of transformation of local identities due to a massive advent of Dutch tourists into Czech countryside after the Velvet revolution. Social and cultural complexity of such hosts and guests encounters raises a whole host of issues. I will touch, above all, upon the effects of tourism on local population and on local policies of mutuality and ignorance.