Tourist Perspectives on Agricultural Heritage Interpretation—A Case Study of the Qingtian Rice-Fish System

Abstract

The interpretation of an agricultural heritage system significantly affects the communication and connection between tourists and heritage sites. Taking the rice-fish system at Qingtian as an example, this study applies field investigations, a tourist questionnaire survey, and face-to-face in-depth interviews to explore agricultural heritage interpretation through the gaze of tourists. A two-dimensional framework integrating interpretation contents and forms for agricultural heritage systems is developed and adopted to guide the analysis. Research results show that tourists’ overall recognition of agricultural heritage features of the Qingtian rice-fish system is not high. Regarding interpretation contents, the rice-fish agricultural landscape, traditional cuisine, and biodiversity exhibit higher awareness. Compared to the static and interactive interpretations, participatory interpretations demonstrated high effectiveness in enhancing visitors’ understanding of agricultural heritage systems, thus raising tourist awareness for heritage conservation. Considering the high potential and the current low level of heritage interpretation, theoretical and managerial implications are then discussed to enhance agricultural heritage interpretations in both content and form to support the conservation and sustainable development of such dynamic agricultural heritage systems.