Resident reactions to a tourism incident: Mapping a Maldivian Emoscape

An emotional landscape (or emoscape) of resident reactions toward a widely circulated video of a Maldivian service sabotage incident was constructed using commentaries collected from social media. Emotions were overwhelmingly oppositional towards the incident, encompassing visceral emotions such as shock and sadness, reflective fight responses including calls for action such as punishment and apology, and sentiments indicating that such incidents are commonplace. Enclave dynamics are suggested as an explanation for the paradox of strong resident defense of tourism in a destination that embodies classic pleasure periphery dynamics.

► First use of social media as catalyst to gauge resident reactions. ► First construction of an emoscape to visualize patterns of resident reaction. ► Emoscape depicts diverse array of emotion-related responses. ► Identifies strong tourism support despite classic pleasure periphery context. ► ‘Enclave paradox’ proposed as one explanation for this support.