FQFD framework for prioritising authenticity and heritage design requirements

Abstract

Understanding the perceptions of the authenticity attributes of heritage attractions is important for tourism management because heritage attractions have traditionally been divided between those with a primary aim of providing entertainment and others for which conservation and issues of authenticity are pre-eminent. This study establishes a systematic relationship among the concepts of staged authenticity, authenticity attributes, and heritage design requirements based on domestic visitors’ experiences in historical streets. Fuzzy judgement is used to determine the vague cognition of authenticity attributes, and fuzzy quality function deployment and the fuzzy expert system are used to determine the intensity of authenticity attributes to develop heritage design requirements. The results contribute to a better understanding of visitors’ perceptions and valuations of heritage design requirements in the historical streets of Taiwan’s tourist attractions. The study’s findings provide prioritised heritage design requirements, including the requirements of a unique experience, substantial feeling, a pleasant experience, and spiritual characteristics, which can be used to determine interesting directions for heritage design.

Keywords:

• FQFD
• authenticity
• heritage tourism

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank to acknowledge the contribution of the anonymous referees for their invaluable comments and suggestions which improved the quality of the paper. This study was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology, MOST 104-2410-H-158-011.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.