Research On Sustainable Development Of Local Cultural Heritage Based On Tourists And Residents' Perception

The report on national tourism conference held in January 8,2018 and the practice of tourism development in recent years indicate that the status of tourism as a strategic pillar industry is more consolidated.Meanwhile the economic and social benefits of the tourism industry are also improving significantly.People want to know the local history and culture through tourism,in order to get spiritual satisfaction.Therefore,local cultural heritage tourism shows a strong momentum of development.But there are many serious commercialization problems in the process of development,which greatly destroys the tourists' experience,at the same time destroys the place identity and place attachment of the local residents.Therefore,it is urgent to explore the law of tourism perception under excessive commercialization circumstances.Currently,the study of cultural heritage tourism has been paid much attention by scholars both at home and abroad,and the research content and research methods are very extensive.However,the research on the local cultural heritage which has not been included in the world cultural heritage list is relatively few,and the research on commercialization of the local cultural heritage tourism is also relatively scarce.Therefore,based on tourism sustainable development theory,sense of place theory and authenticity theory,this thesis explores the commercialization of local cultural heritage tourism from the perspective of authenticity.The author conducts the filed research on two local cultural heritage sites with different degrees of commercialization——the Ancient Cultural Street and the Grand Courtyard of SHI in Tianjin,from the perspective of residents and tourists,trying to obtain the residents' and tourists' perception of local cultural heritage.Furthermore,this thesis built two relation models:(1)tourists authenticity-sense of place-tourists' attitude and loyalty;(2)residents authenticity-place identity and place attachment-residents' attitude towards tourists and tourism development.This thesis tries to study the sustainable development of local cultural heritage tourism from the perspective of authenticity and sense of place perception,with a hope of supplying the existing research on the sustainable development of heritage tourism.First of all,this thesis reviews the relevant literature on authenticity,sense of place of tourists and residents,authenticity and tourism sustainable development,while making the latest research of scholars as reference.Secondly,this thesis defines the concept of local cultural heritage,cultural heritage tourism and tourism perception,and puts forward research hypotheses from the perspective of tourists and residents based on current conditions of tourism development in Tianjin and sustainable development theory,sense of place theory and authenticity theory.In addition,this thesis takes tourists sense of place as the intermediary variable,to explore the relationship between tourists' authenticity and tourists' attitude and loyalty,while taking tourists perceived popularity as the moderating variables;at the same time taking place identity and place attachment of residents as an intermediary variable,to explore the relationship between residents' authenticity and attitude towards tourists and tourism development.The questionnaire of residents and tourists is on the basis of hypothesis and the latest research from domestic and foreign scholars.Residents questionnaire includes residents' attitude towards tourists,residents' attitude towards tourism development,place identity,place attachment and authenticity;tourists questionnaire includes tourists' attitude towards local cultural heritage,tourists perceived popularity,sense of place,tourists' loyalty and authenticity.Finally,the hypothesis was verified by regression analysis,all of the hypotheses were tested.According to the research results,this thesis puts forward the countermeasures for the sustainable development of local cultural heritage tourism in Tianjin.According to the empirical research conclusion,this thesis puts forward several suggestion:ensure the subject status of the objective authenticity,and gradually improve the existential authenticity;based on the authenticity of local cultural heritage,promote the sustainable development of tourism;“activate” the cultural heritage,enhance the tourists' sense of place;promote community-based cultural protection,enhance the place attachment and place identity of residents;standardize the commercial operation of tourist attractions,ensure the authenticity of local cultural heritage.This thesis hopes to provide reference for the sustainable development of Tianjin local cultural heritage tourism.