Empowering Traditional Tourism through the Activation and Utilization of Intangible Cultural Heritage: New Trends, Mechanisms, and Optimization Paths
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71222/s9d0xt60Keywords:
Intangible Cultural Heritage, activation and utilization, tourism industry, development trends, empowerment roleAbstract
As a living carrier of China's excellent traditional culture, Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereinafter referred to as "ICH") embodies the historical memory, cultural genes, and spiritual codes of the nation. Its activation and utilization are deeply intertwined with tourism development, creating a relationship of mutual empowerment. With the deepening integration of culture and tourism and the iterative upgrading of consumer demands, the traditional tourism industry is undergoing a profound transformation: from "sightseeing-oriented" to "experience-oriented," from "singular" to "diversified," and from "traffic-oriented" to "value-oriented." As a core resource possessing cultural, experiential, and unique characteristics, ICH not only injects vibrant cultural connotations into traditional tourism-resolving the dilemma of "homogenized landscapes"-but also drives innovation in business formats, quality improvement, and value reconstruction. Based on the core connotation of ICH activation, this paper systematically analyzes the new changes and characteristics of tourism development in the new era. It focuses on elaborating the empowering role of ICH in traditional tourism, analyzes existing problems in current integrated development through practical cases, and proposes targeted optimization paths. This study aims to provide theoretical references and practical insights for promoting the high-quality development of both ICH activation and the tourism industry.References
1. C. Yuan, L. Gan, and H. Zhuo, “Coupling mechanisms and development patterns of revitalizing intangible cultural heritage by integrating cultural tourism: The case of Hunan Province, China,” Sustainability, vol. 14, no. 12, p. 6994, 2022.
2. K. Wasela, "The role of intangible cultural heritage in the development of cultural tourism," International Journal of Eco-Cultural Tourism, Hospitality Planning and Development, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 15-28, 2023. doi: 10.21608/ijecth.2024.297283.1004
3. E. Belletti, "SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND VALUE CO-CRATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL AREAS," 2018.
4. Q. Qiu, T. Zheng, Z. Xiang, and M. Zhang, "Visiting intangible cultural heritage tourism sites: From value cognition to attitude and intention," Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 132, 2019. doi: 10.3390/su12010132
5. Y. Shen, Y. C. Cai, and X. Y. Wang, "Intangible cultural heritage in industrial design," Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 354-372, 2024.
6. Q. Chen, and N. Phakdeephirot, "Problems and countermeasures of integrated development of tourism and cultural industry in Sichuan Province," 2023.
7. Y. Zhang, Z. Sun, and S. Guo, "Exploration of "ICH+ digital game" mode under the threshold of culture and tourism integration," In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, June, 2024, pp. 153-171. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-60012-8_10
8. A. Riedl, "AI Applications in Tourism-Exploring Tourists' Perspectives Across the Customer Journey (Doctoral dissertation, University of Innsbruck)," 2025.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Sihai Wu, Qiong Wu (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

