Understanding the relationship between tourists’ perceptions of the authenticity of traditional village cultural landscapes and behavioural intentions, mediated by memorable tourism experiences and place attachment

ABSTRACT

Traditional village tourism development is influenced by cultural landscape authenticity and tourists’ behavioural intentions. Data was collected from 347 tourists through field surveying. Structural equation modelling was used to explore interactions between traditional village cultural landscape (TVCL) authenticity, memorable tourism experiences (MTE) and place attachment (PA) in driving tourist behavioural intentions. TVCL authenticity, MTE and PA significantly affect behavioural intentions; MTE and PA have significant partial mediating effects on TVCL authenticity and behavioural intentions. The study emphasises the role of cultural landscape authenticity in traditional village tourism, enriches authenticity theory, and promotes rural tourism development and sustainable protection forms.

KEYWORDS:

• Traditional village
• cultural landscape
• perception of authenticity
• memorable tourism experience
• place attachment
• tourist behavioural intentions

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their gratitude to EditSprings (https://www.editsprings.cn) for the expert linguistic services provided.

Data availability statements

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province: [grant no 2020SJA0154]; National Key research and development Program of China: [grant no 2019YFD1100404]; Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions: [grant no 20181008].