Abstract
Local residents of buffer zones, as a key factor in the World Heritage conservation and sustainable development, have not received sufficient attention in most developing countries, especially in the mountainous areas where poor and backward ethnic minorities live. To fill this research gap, this paper takes the Karst World Heritage buffer zone in Libo, Guizhou Province, southwest mountainous area of China, as the research area, and explores the factors that influence the perception of residents’ responsibility for the World Heritage conservation by taking local residents who are involved in tourism management as the research subjects. Data were collected in the buffer zone of the Libo World Heritage site and 186 valid data were generated. SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 27.0 software were used to analyze the questionnaire data and construct a structural equation model. The results showed that environmental protection behavior had the greatest impact on residents’ perception of responsibility for heritage conservation (0.93), followed by the recognition of heritage value (0.55), tourism positive impact (0.39), and place identification (0.34), among which the positive impact of tourism had a greater impact on the perception of heritage value (0.52). The results of the study emphasize the importance of the recognition of heritage value and positive tourism influence on the formation of residents’ perception of responsibility for heritage conservation, and provide an empirical basis for the conservation of the World Natural Heritage.
Highlights
World Heritage sites, with a unique value and global brand appeal, have gradually evolved into powerful tourist attractions and often become tourist hotspots
Based on the existing literature and the analysis tools of SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 27.0, this paper aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical framework, which takes the perception of responsibility for heritage conservation as a predictor of the heritage conservation behavior of local residents who participate in the tourism operation in the heritage buffer zone
This research, at the core of the latent variables and measured variables, related model research in tourism development and environmental protection on the basis of the combination of the World Heritage Buffer on the residents’ perception of development and protection of heritage. It operated 19 observed variables which were equipped with heritage value cognition, place identification, positive impact of tourism, environmental protection behavior and the perception of responsibility for heritage conservation six-core latent variables, three observation indicators were set for the core latent variables of heritage value, and the other four corresponding observation variables were set, respectively
Summary
Ruonan Fang 1 , Juan Zhang 1,2 , Kangning Xiong 1, *, Kyung-Sik Woo 3 and Ning Zhang 1.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
