Understanding Residents Support Attitude Towards Tourism Performing Arts Development Using Cognitive Evaluation Theory

Tourism performance has contributed to the development of cultural tourism in China.Tourism performing art has been regarded as a new way of tourism,which uses singing and dancing,folk art,and acrobatics to provide tourists with performing arts activities that can reflect the local folk customs and cultural characteristics.Tourism performing art is an art product based on local folk culture and resources.As the importance of residents toward the development of tourism performing arts,it is essential to explore their cognition and emotion about tourism performing arts.However,there are relatively few studies focusing on the role of residents in the development of tourism performing arts products,especially in remote mountainous areas.In this study,the tourism performing art is named “Legend of Enyang”,which is in Enyang,Bazhong,Sichuan Province.We discussed the influence of residents’ emotions on the tourism support attitude,based on the combination of theoretical research and empirical research.In addition,we provided some suggestions for the development of “Legend of Enyang”.The designed questionnaire included four parts: emotional response(positive and negative emotions),cognitive evaluation model(outcome desirability,fairness,agency,certainty,and coping potential),supporting behaviors,and demographic information.Finally,we obtained 424 valid questionnaires from online and offline questionnaires.The model assumption was tested by the analysis of reliability and validity,indicating a reliable dataset collected and a goodness model fit.We found that:(1)apart from the nonsignificant effect of fairness on positive(β = 0.052,P > 0.05)and negative emotions(β =-0.093,P > 0.05),the cognitive evaluation of residents on tourism performance significantly(P< 0.05)affected their emotional response;(2)the emotional reaction of residents had a significant(P < 0.05)influence on the supporting attitude of tourism performance especially the emotion of love;(3)apart from the proxy(β = 0.014,P > 0.05),cognitive evaluation directly affected the residents’ support attitude towards tourism performance;and(4)residents’ cognitive evaluation of tourism performance indirectly affected the tourism support attitude through emotional reactions.Finally,we provided three management suggestions for the development of “Legend of Enyang”:(1)paying attention to residents’ cognitive evaluation,especially the satisfaction of residents’ demands;(2)encouraging the support of residents;and(3)promoting the integration of culture and tourism.