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To what extent does tourism, as a facet of development, impact cultural identity? Many developing countries rely on tourism for both economic growth and infrastructure development. This reliance on tourism has led to a phenomenon known as nation branding, or the act of applying "corporate branding techniques to countries."1 Nation branding allows countries to create a favorable national image that attracts both foreign investors and international tourists, but little is known about how the process of nation branding to increase tourism affects communities, especially cultural identity. This paper delves into background information about development, tourism, and identity, then explores how the three factors interact in Yanque, a small town in Central Peru. By examining the narratives of Yanque residents, this paper reveals that tourism has negatively impacted the cultural identity of Yanque because identity is manipulated and defined from "above" through the national branding strategies of the country. This paper also identifies three negative impacts on cultural identity: 1) community members are marginalized; 2) culture is essentialized and commodified, and 3) traditions, customs, and values are negatively impacted. Methodology
Since changes in cultural identity are difficult to measure using large-scale statistical methods, this study adopts the case study method and employs process-tracing, which "attempts to trace the links between possible causes and observed outcome."2 It draws directly from anthropology-more specifically ethnographic methodology-to grapple with concepts of culture, identity, and change in Yanque and surrounding towns. During a one-month research trip in Yanque in June 2019, the author of this study joined community members as they went about their daily lives and interactions. Additionally, they gathered interview data and relied on existing documents to explore the causal relationship between tourism, national branding, and cultural change. In total, the research team collected twenty-five interviews from Yanque residents. These interviews were conducted as part of Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Dr. Eric Hirsch's, research, which was approved by the Franklin and Marshall Institutional Research Board. Interviewee selection was completely random. The interviews ranged from fifteen minutes to one hour. Individuals were asked to answer the following questions: 1) What is the cultural identity of the community in Yanque, in terms of food, clothing, language, way of life? Is the cultural identity of Yanque different from other communities in...