Resident-Tourist Value Co-Creation in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Tourism Context: The Role of Residents’ Perception of Tourism Development and Emotional Solidarity

Tianning Lan,Zhiyue Zheng,Mu Zhang,Rob Law,Di Tian,Rui Zhang

doi:10.3390/su13031369

Tianning Lan, Zhiyue Zheng + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031369

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jan 28, 2021
Citations: 36	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Jinan University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract

The value co-creation behavior of residents can contribute to the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) tourism. This paper aims to provide a theoretical framework that uses “cognition–affection–behavior” theory to explain how the two variables of tourism development perception and emotional solidarity affect the value co-creation participation behavior of the local residents in the context of intangible cultural heritage tourism while considering the mediating role of emotional solidarity. This study empirically investigates Meizhou Island in Fujian Province, China as an example by using a structural equation model (SEM). Results show that the perception of local residents toward the benefits of tourism development has a significant positive impact on their emotional solidarity and value co-creation participation behavior, whereas their perception toward the costs of tourism development has a significant negative impact. In addition, the emotional solidarity of these residents has a significant positive impact on their value co-creation participation and plays a mediating role in the relationship between the tourism development perceptions of local residents and their value co-creation participation behavior. This study has important theoretical and practical significance for the management of ICH tourist destinations.

Highlights

Published: 28 January 2021As the world attaches great importance to preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH), the rise of the ICH tourism mode, and the arrival of the experience economy era, tourists’ travel style is not limited to the single traditional sightseeing, and gradually develops into a deep, personalized, and experiential tourism activity
Tourism development benefit perception has a greater impact on value co-creation participation, that is, the greater perception of Meizhou Island residents toward the benefits of tourism development translates to a higher tendency for these residents to engage in value co-creation with tourists
When these residents can readily perceive the benefits of tourism development, they tend to engage in close and frequent contact with tourists; otherwise, they feel alienated from these tourists

Summary

Introduction

Published: 28 January 2021As the world attaches great importance to preserving intangible cultural heritage (ICH), the rise of the ICH tourism mode, and the arrival of the experience economy era, tourists’ travel style is not limited to the single traditional sightseeing, and gradually develops into a deep, personalized, and experiential tourism activity. To meet the personalized needs of these tourists, some tourism service providers have begun to analyze their value proposition, increased their interactions with stakeholders, and introduced multiple resources as value-added elements into the tourism service process in order to obtain the spillover value of sustainable tourism development. The value provision and acquisition of tourism services are gradually integrated into one, triggering a value co-creation among stakeholders in the tourism process. Value co-creation takes place through an interactive exchange and integration of resources among participants. This concept emphasizes that the increasing number of participants involved in the value co-creation process changes the way the value is created and achieves a win-win result for all stakeholders [3,4].

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