| Author: | Lu, Wentao |
| Title: | The embodied heritage tourism experience : an exploratory study in Sichuan Province, China |
| Advisors: | Xiao, Honggen (SHTM) Kim, Sam (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Subject: | Heritage tourism -- China Tourists Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | x, 145 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Heritage, which is one of the cornerstones of cultural tourism, is considered the most significant and fast-growing aspect of tourism. No doubt exists that if cultural heritage resources are used wisely in tourism development, heritage can play a profound role in the formation of national consciousness, national unity, as well as economic and social development, thereby achieving a win-win situation for both cultural heritage and tourism. The core of cultural heritage is identity, and its value is not only in the objective physical form of heritage, but also in the exploitation of cultural heritage. Therefore, by participating in such tourism activities, tourists co-construct the authenticity of cultural heritage and promote the development of cultural heritage tourism. Numerous studies focus on heritage tourism development and management, sustainable development and conservation, authenticity of heritage tourism experiences, and explore memorable cultural heritage tourism experiences, and visitor perceptions and attitudes. However, few investigate heritage tourism experiences from the perspective of embodied perceptions or tourists’ bodies. The current study provides new insights and opinions on tourists’ embodied experiences. The study takes tourists’ embodied experience in heritage tourism places as the research theme and explores two main aspects: 1) the composition of heritage tourism experiences and 2) the characteristics of embodiment in heritage tourism and its formation process. The study is set in the Chengdu Plain in the southwest region of China and uses participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect data. Among them, five cultural heritage sites were selected as targets for participant observation, while 20 in-depth interviews were conducted. The results were analyzed from the perspective of participant observation results on tourists’ behaviors and embodied experiences. Additionally, NVivo 12 was used to help code the in-depth interview data at three levels using grounded theory to form the five dimensions of embodied experiences of heritage tourism: perceptual experience, emotional psychology, cognition and learning, social interactive space experience, and body movement and physical-spatial environment. Finally, the characteristics and formation process of embodied heritage tourism are discussed, and the researcher construct a model of heritage tourism embodied experience. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7871.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.69 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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