Spatial-Temporal Distribution Characteristics and Evolution Logic of Inn Linguistic Landscape in Shuanglang Ancient Town under the Tourism Development

Abstract

Linguistic landscapes, which refer to language and text displayed in public areas with a certain scale or visual impact, have become samples for geographers to conduct multi-type regional research and to examine social and cultural phenomena. In tourist destinations, such landscapes are often found in the form of signs, slogans, and billboards throughout public spaces, helping visitors quickly access information and understand the locale. Inn names are representative linguistic landscapes in rural tourist destinations, embodying operators' profound understanding of place and tourism relationships, reflecting tourists' emotional cognition of the destination. Analyzing their evolution helps to deeply understand the local development process and provides a decision-making reference for future development. This study selects Shuanglang Ancient Town in Dali, Yunnan Province as a case study. Semi-structured interviews, textual analysis, and GIS spatial analysis are adopted to interpret the complex relationship between inn names and local transformation development, attempting to answer how the inn names present spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and adapt to the transformation development of rural tourism destinations. Field investigation revealed that "resident guests" and local Bai ethnic villagers are the producers of the inn's linguistic landscape, following a bottom-up development model, but later indirectly influenced by the government. In the temporal dimension, the inn's linguistic landscape has undergone a development process from gradual enrichment to decline and then to stabilization, with landscape elements dominating. In the spatial dimension, it presents an unbalanced spatial structure, with areas such as Haixia Street, Tianshengying, and Laoyugang featuring significant coastal characteristics and having the highest concentration of the inn's linguistic landscape. The linguistic landscape of Shuanglang inns presents typical audience design characteristics influenced by the market as well as self-expression characteristics influenced by the inn operators' identities. Under the comprehensive influence of modernity and mobility, the spatiotemporal evolution of Shuanglang Ancient Town's inn linguistic landscape is closely embedded in the tourism destination construction and consumption process, with increasing tourist flow, tourists' romantic imagination of Shuanglang, and the self-reflection of migrant tourists driving the production of diverse categories in the linguistic landscape. Meanwhile, the unique natural landscape, limited living space, and pursuit of commercial interests drive the spatial evolution of the inn's linguistic landscape. The rural tourism destination image of "poetry and the distant" is continuously reinforced in the inn's linguistic landscape. In terms of innovation, this study provides new findings for existing research that considers the evolution of tourism destination linguistic landscapes as presenting "audience design" characteristics. Some "counter-market" linguistic landscape evolution characteristics are, in fact, modern people's escape from modernity. However, this behavior is not merely negative; the "warm writing" of the inn's linguistic landscape on living spaces can be regarded as an important practice for their aspirations toward a better life.

Keywords

• linguistic landscape
• inn name
• tourism development
• shuanglang ancient town