Cultural Tourism Experience Research Articles

Digital cultural tourism: older adults’ acceptance and use of digital cultural tourism services

ABSTRACT Physiological and psychological constraints, e.g. increased risk of serious illness or loneliness imposed by mobility restrictions, make older adults one of the hardest hit tourist segments amidst during and after COVID-19. Older adults play a particularly important role as consumers of cultural tourism services. To mitigate for lack of in-situ cultural tourism experiences, many service providers have moved their offerings to a digital format, from virtual museum tours to livestreamed concerts. However, previous research suggests that older adults may not be as agile users of digital technology as younger tourists, potentially making it difficult for them to partake in digital cultural tourism. To that end, this paper explores factors influencing older adults’ acceptance and use of digital technology to access and partake in digital cultural tourism experiences. An empirical study drawing on technology acceptance model (TAM) is conducted, whereby 357 Finnish older adults (aged 60+) are surveyed. Findings indicate that digital cultural tourism services are seen to complement in-situ cultural tourism experiences to some degree, but that challenges such as lack of feeling of community and interaction, technical constraints, as well as lack of information of available services limit adoption. Implications for tourism management are considered.

Who wears Hanfu clothing when they travel? Experience-based cultural tourism market segmentation – the case of Xi'an, China

ABSTRACT The Han culture is the Chinese national culture as well as a significant part of the world's costuming heritage. However, Han clothes (Hanfu) are little known outside of China. This research selected Xi'an, a famous historical city, as the case to collect data using the survey questionnaire method. Factor analysis explored the variables involved in the cultural tourism experiences of wearing Hanfu clothing. Two-step clustering was used to prepare a market segmentation of this form of cultural tourism. The experience of wearing Hanfu clothing was influenced by the five factors of entertainment, aesthetics, culture, escape, and cosplay (costume play). Tourists who wore Hanfu clothing while travelling were classified into the four types of immersive cultural, aesthetic experience, culturally refined, and passing tourists. These groups had dissimilar socio-demographic characteristics and experience priorities. This research expands the knowledge on Hanfu clothing and cultural tourism experiences and provides insights for the management of cultural tourism destinations.

Cuando el Turismo se convierte en juego: la gamificación en el turismo cultural en Catalunya

This article is focused on gamification and the study of its strategic use in cultural and creative tourism experiences in Catalonia. From a qualitative perspective and based on ten semi‑structured interviews, the objec‑ tive of this research is to analyse the relationships between gamification and tourism from a supply perspective. Results show the importance of gamification in learning and discovering the characteristics of a place, in attract‑ ing and retaining customers, and in encouraging co‑creation of unique experiences that combine offline and online resources. This research provides visibility on a topic as yet scarcely studied within the academic literature, and represents a contribution to the study of gamification and its implications for cultural tourism in Catalonia.

Can cultural tourism experience enhance cultural confidence? The evidence from Qingyuan Mountain.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 600 visitors to the region using Qingyuan Mountain, a 5A picturesque location in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, as the research site. A total of 489 valid questionnaires were received. The links between cultural involvement, cultural experience, cultural identity, cultural confidence, and cultural loyalty were experimentally examined using a structural equation modeling technique. The results showed that cultural experience was a mediating factor in the processes of the influence of cultural involvement on cultural identity and the influence of cultural involvement on cultural confidence, but the influence of cultural involvement on cultural identity and the influence of cultural involvement on cultural confidence were not supported. The study accordingly condenses theoretical contributions to academia and management insights for businesses.

A Study on Cultural Context Perception in Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Reserve Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

Tourists’ environmental perception is the decisive factor of cultural tourism experience. Although this topic research is relatively common, there are essential differences between different theme tourism areas. This study selects the national Huizhou Cultural and Ecological Reserve in China as the research object, which has a diverse cultural field, a wide range of researchable levels, and research theoretical support, and focuses on the evaluation of tourists’ environmental perceptions of cultural-themed tourism reserves. The research is in line with the basic consensus of the international community on the relationship between NRM conservation and sustainable development and has a positive significance for cultural conservation. In this study, nine indicators were constructed from the three dimensions of cultural perception, environmental perception, and emotional perception, including mental pleasure, experience comfort, audiovisual richness, cultural awareness, cultural diversity, cultural influence, facilities completeness, environment tidiness, and travel convenience. Questionnaires (283) were distributed, 260 of which were valid. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy method were used to study the cultural context perception of Huizhou Cultural Ecological Reserve. The Cronbach coefficient was 0.977, the KMO value was 0.953, and the validity was 91.87%. The research results show that, first, tourists’ perception level from high to low is cultural perception (0.351), environmental perception (0.349), and emotional perception (0.301). Secondly, the factors most strongly perceived by tourists are tourism convenience (0.129), cultural influence (0.126), cultural diversity (0.118), and facilities completeness (0.115). Thirdly, improving tourists’ spiritual pleasure, experience comfort, audiovisual richness, cultural recognition, and environmental cleanliness is conducive to promoting tourists’ perception and experience.

문화관광 체험이 진정성과 방문만족에 미치는 영향 연구

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cultural tourism experience on authenticity and visit satisfaction. The study is based on previous research. This study surveyed tourists who visited or experienced cultural tourism in Hwaseong. In order to empirically review this, an online and offline survey was conducted from April 28, 2022 to June 19, 2022 for cultural tourists with more than two years experience in Hwaseong, and 203 valid questionnaires were analyzed. For hypothesis verification, frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis were performed using SPSS 22. The analysis results are as follows. Firstly, it was found that all experience factors of cultural tourism had a significant positive (+) effect on authenticity (objective authenticity), it was found that among experience factors of cultural tourism, excluding a deviant experience and esthetic experience, entertainment and educative experience had a significant positive (+) effect on authenticity (existential authenticity). Secondly, the authenticity was found to have a significant positive (+) effect on visit satisfaction. Thirdly, all experience factors of cultural tourism were found to have a significant positive (+) effect on visit satisfaction. Finally, according to the analysis results, effective academic and practical implications for culture tourism were presented.

Innovating with stakeholders to co-create value in cultural tourism experiences: a case study of Schokland in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how management at heritage visitor attractions (HVAs) can innovate with local stakeholders in the co-creation of value for visitors in cultural tourism experiences. Taking a case study of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Schokland in the Netherlands, thirteen interviews were conducted with management and local stakeholders over a five-year period. Our findings advance heritage management discourse by critically assessing HVAs regarding relationship management and innovations with stakeholders that drive development processes. We also contribute to service-dominant logic theory and value co-creation theory by applying the concept of co-creation to the collaborative innovations between management and local stakeholders, whilst offering practical recommendations for HVAs to co-create value for visitors.

A Netnography Study on Memorable Cultural Tourism Experiences: Insights from Asian Cultural Heritage Site Tourists

Cultural tourism is a rapidly growing industry across the globe. This study aims to contribute to the existing knowledge of tourist experiences at cultural destinations. To this end, the study explores the factors that contribute to memorable cultural tourism experiences at cultural heritage sites, specifically museums. Using WebHarvy, a total of 502 online reviews were collected from a popular tourism website, namely TripAdvisor. The collected reviews concern 14 heritage museums in 10 Asian countries. Netnography was employed as a content analysis technique. The results revealed five contributing factors of memorable cultural tourism experiences: authenticity, engagement, culinary attraction, atmospherics, and quality of service. Theoretically, this study adds to our understanding of memorable cultural tourism experiences by identifying a novel dimension, namely atmospherics. In other words, this research highlights the importance of ambiance and environment in tourism experiences at cultural heritage sites. Thus, the study provides insights for heritage site managers on how to make the tourism experience memorable.

Antecedents Experiential Commitment and Consequences in Willingness to Post Photo and Behavioral Intention Toward the Destination

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Destination Image, Place Attachment, Place Identity, Place Dependence and Experiential Commitment have an effect on Behavioral Intentions toward the destination, willingness to post photos. The population of this study is tourists who visit Labuan Bajo tourism. This study's sample size was 200 people. This is a quantitative study using a survey method. In this study, a questionnaire was used to collect data. Online questionnaires were distributed to domestic tourists who visit Labuan Bajo and the technique sampling using a Non Probability Sampling approach with purposive sampling, with the criteria that tourists visit Labuan Bajo at least once a year. PLS-SEM is used to analyze data. The results showed that there was a positive influence between the variables Destination Image, Place Attachment, Place Identity, Place Dependence, Experiential Commitment, Behavioral Intentions toward the destination, willingness to post photo. Labuan Bajo have an adventure Tourism Activities, cultural Tourism Experience, Culinary Experience (Cruise Dining, Dining with a View), beautiful spot photo and scenery.

Heritage tourism products based on traditional nature-related knowledge: assessment of cultural, social, and environmental factors in cases from rural Austria

ABSTRACT We investigate success and sustainability factors for tourism offers based on intangible cultural heritage, such as traditional nature-related knowledge and practices, and propose an assessment framework for communities. Using examples from rural Austria, where such practices serve as tourism attractions in many communities, we demonstrate how ‘packaging’ knowledge and practices into tourism offers can contribute to sustainable tourism development with shared benefits in rural areas away from well-known tourism centres and attractions. Such activities also contribute to safeguarding and revitalisation of intangible cultural heritage and cultural landscapes in a sustainable manner, balancing entertainment, and educational/cultural values. Using a social constructionist frame and ethnographic case study approach, data from interviews with 19 stakeholders from four regions, selected through purposive sampling, were analysed and their experiences and perceptions were complemented by participant observations. Results of the thematic data analysis were categorised into different groups of sustainability and success factors building the assessment framework for tourism potential. We discuss factors such as mechanisms of stakeholder engagement and benefit sharing, and characteristics of good cultural interpretation and tourism experience by analysing good practices and flaws of the four case studies and provide recommendations for using the assessment framework in practice.

Memorable cultural tourism experience: blogger narrative analysis

Cultural tourism has an important influence on the development of the tourism industry. The travel experience stories of bloggers written through blogs contributed to the initial introduction and impact of other travel planning tours. It can also be used as a reference by tourism agents. However, the travel experience stories of these bloggers have not been structured as themes and memorable experiences. Whereas the core product of the tourism business is a memorable experience. In the perspective of narrative paradigm theory (NPT), a story or narrative is successful as a human communication capable of forming meaning, if it has coherence and truth. . Therefore, this study aims to reveal the narrative structure told by bloggers. So that the meaning and theme of the cultural tourism experience can be understood as a memorable experience. This study uses a qualitative approach with narrative paradigm theory (NPT). The research data as the unit of analysis was collected from the narrative stories of bloggers published on weblogs. Meanwhile, the principle of the grounded theory approach is aimed at uncovering the narrative themes of bloggers. The results of the study explain the narrative of bloggers in cultural tourism that is told through blog pages as narrative rationales because there is coherence and truth so that they form meaning as a positive, enjoyable, and satisfying experience. The category of cultural tourism that bloggers often visit is the category of cultural heritage, such as museums, temple sites, and old buildings, as well as local or traditional villages. The results of this study also found that a series of blogger narratives formed the theme of memorable experiences through cultural tourism, such as spirituality, intellectual national identity, and local uniqueness. Overall this research reveals, the rational structure of the narrative in the blogger's narrative explains the meaning of an impressive experience in cultural tourism as a positive, pleasant, and memorable view that tourists remember after visiting a destination that is categorized as cultural tourism, retold in the form of a story.

무형문화재의 체험요소가 지각된 가치와 만족 및 행동의도에 미치는 영향: 안동 하회별신굿탈놀이를 대상으로

This paper attempted to analyze the effects of the intangible cultural heritage tourism experience factors to be dealt with in this study on perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention based on the experience economy factors (4Es).<BR> As a result of the analysis, first, it was confirmed that esthetic experience, escapist experience, and educational experience, excluding entertainment experience, had a significant positive (+) effect on perceived value. Second, it was confirmed that the perceived value of tourists had a significant positive (+) effect on satisfaction. Third, it was found that entertainment experience, esthetic experience, educational experience, and escapist experience all had a significant positive (+) effect on the satisfaction of tourists

Traveling the Past: Raising Awareness of Cultural Heritage through Virtual Reality

Technology-supported applications have been found to improve cultural heritage tourism experiences. This paper raises the question of whether and how Virtual Reality technology is accepted as a means to communicate cultural heritage. The second iteration of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT 2) is employed to investigate factors driving the user intention to adopt the technology and the subsequent usage behavior. We find that technology acceptance is mainly driven by the level of enjoyment and entertainment the user experiences. Due to the novelty of the technology in the analyzed setting, technology usage intention has not yet converted into actual technology usage.

Heritage hotel experiences in Nizwa, Oman

AbstractOman is a developing tourism destination providing a range of cultural heritage experiences. The Omani Government has focused on preservation of tangible heritage such as forts, souqs and archaeology sites, where there is a separation between heritage experiences and resident's everyday life. Recently, small entrepreneurs in Nizwa, Oman have begun to reuse traditional houses as heritage accommodation and thus embedding the tourist in the social fabric. This research examines the development of these private sector heritage hotels and their implications for the development of tourism in Nizwa. Data were collected through face‐to‐face interviews with government, entrepreneurs, tourists, and residents. This study contextualises the practices framework of Richards (2018), illustrating the mutually dependent and evolving interrelationships between meanings, resources and competences in a developing destination. The reuse of heritage hotels as a way to provide tourists with intangible cultural heritage and contemporary life experiences has changed the meanings of these resources from valueless to valuable. This supports the further development of intangible cultural heritage tourism experiences, but implies stakeholders need new competencies in experience design and destination management. The study indicates that cultural practices are dynamic and that various stakeholder groups (government, residents, businesses, and tourists) may have different meanings and competences. Further research is required to determine if these dynamic relationships form patterns across destinations.

A Study on the Influence of Cultural Heritage Tourism Experience on Flow, Attachment, and Behavioral Intentions by Applying Experience Economic Theory: Focusing on Gyeongbuk Palace

A Study on the Influence of Cultural Heritage Tourism Experience on Flow, Attachment, and Behavioral Intentions by Applying Experience Economic Theory: Focusing on Gyeongbuk Palace

문화관광 경험품질이 경험가치와 감정적 태도에 미치는 영향

This study is about the effect of Cultural Tourism Experience Quality on Experiential Value and Emotional Attitude. Three main hypotheses are based on Experience Quality, Experiential Value, and Emotional Attitude. The empirical analysis was analyzed using the SPSS WIN Ver2.22.0 statistical package program after the questionnaire was collected. The survey was conducted for one month from April 16th to June 7th, 2021.<BR> As the result of this study, in recent years, the overall industry has been struggling with development due to the effects of COVID-19. But these tough times are about to turn into opportunities. The past and present should be changed and improved into a well-converged cultural tourism city. It will be necessary to grasp the characteristics of Suwon-si tourists more closely than to what they want and what they feel valuable. Finally, various programs, activities and events will need to be planned and improved in order to stimulate the emotional aspects of cultural tourists.

IPA 분석을 통한 중국 계림(桂林)의 관광이미지 지각 특성

China's tourism industry has already entered the stage of iconography and smart cultural tourism experience, and the special tourism image has gradually become a key factor that not only attracts the attention of target tourists but also enhances the competitiveness of the destination. In order to further enhance the scientific and directivity of the image survey of Guilin tourist destinations, a survey was conducted on tourists who visited Guilin and local tourists. In particular, in this study, we tried to measure the perception of tourists' perception of Guilin's travel image by conducting comparative analysis on the importance and satisfaction of visiting Guilin tourists through independent t-test, descriptive statistics, and IPA analysis. Through this study, it was revealed that tourists in Guilin sensed the travel environment mainly with natural scenery and humanistic scenery as relief, but they lacked enjoyment and experience perception of humanistic scenery. In addition, as a result of IPA analysis of the image of the tourist destination in Guilin, satisfaction with social security and transportation convenience was low compared to the importance, which was found to be an important factor to be improved. In addition, it was found that new media marketing needs to be supplemented, such as optimizing the image of the tourist destination in Guilin, securing, promoting, and improving the image of the tourist destination in Guilin.

Conceptualising co-created transformative tourism experiences: A systematic narrative review

Transformative tourism experiences (TE) have powerful personal and societal implications due to life-changing capacities when consumers subsume their experiences. Past reviews and conceptualisations of TE have been limited in scope, often emphasising a particular theory or context, and prioritising the consumer perspective. Given an increasing need to understand TE due to its implications concerning tourism sustainability, this study systematically reviews TE in travel and tourism. The study adopts a hybrid systematic narrative approach to build a holistic conceptual framework of TE from a co-created perspective, offering insights for future research. From the 125 studies, the review's findings revealed a massive dominance on qualitative approaches across seven broad experience categories concerning TE. These broad categories are general travel and tourism, educational, voluntourism, cultural, nature-based, wellness, and niche tourism experiences. From these seven broad categories of studies, three identified dimensions of TE were: experience, experience-facilitator, and experience-consumer. The inter-relations between these three dimensions produces four different outcomes to both the experience-consumer and experience-facilitator. While the findings indicate several areas for future research, three areas require greater attention: potential barriers, the role of culture in TE, and the potential for negative transformations.

Cultural Sustainability: Teaching and Design Strategies for Incorporating Service Design in Religious Heritage Branding

Under globalization, a local brand must be managed by strengthening local uniqueness and representativeness to become a unique brand that is irreplaceable in the international market. An examination of Taiwan’s cultural characteristics and resources shows that religion has been the focus of the government’s tourism promotion in recent years. A religious site is filled with architectural, historical, aesthetic, and cultural elements. Through online marketing and multilingual introductions, the government has packaged Taiwan’s religious culture into a brand. Temples not only provide devotees with a place for spiritual sustenance but also offer them cultural tourism experiences. When service design is integrated into the branding process, the various touchpoints experienced are the key to promoting temple and tourist interactions. A culture can be converted into unique and representative patterns by using brand design strategies, thereby creating opportunities for cultural sustainability. This study chose a national monument temple in Yunlin County, Taiwan, as the study location. Through a course of instruction, students with professional design backgrounds were granted the opportunity to work in a monumental temple, where they practiced participatory learning, played the role of mentors, and developed design proposals. By using observation and interview methods as well as service design tools, the students identified problems and needs and proposed service design insights and design implementation plans. The results of this study were analyzed along with the design flow, course outcomes, and students’ open-ended questionnaires. Finally, a religious branding design strategy based on the core value of cultural sustainability was proposed.

The impact of cultural tourism experience on electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and destination image

Tourism experience is considered highly essential in tourism studies but less attention to research has focused on cultural tourism experiences whereas has its idiosyncratic compared to other types of tourism. This study investigated the interrelationship among cultural tourism experiences, electronic word of mouth, and destination image. Empirical analysis based on data collected through online questionnaires from 134 tourists have been visited the religious-cultural tourism village Bongo in Gorontalo. PLS-SEM conducted to data analysis which showed that cultural tourism experience positively impacts on destination image and electronic word of mouth, also electronic word of mouth influence destination image. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of tourism experience and its impact on future tourist behavior in the cultural tourism context. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are beneficial in designing strategies to leverage destination attractiveness