The Relationships Between Tourists' Perceptions of Cultural Authenticity and Authentic Happiness: Evidence from Ethnic Villages

Abstract

Cultural authenticity is the core resource of ethnic tourism destinations, and tourists' perceptions of cultural authenticity affect their sense of authentic happiness. Based on cognitive appraisal theory, a research model of perceptions of cultural authenticity and authentic happiness was constructed to explore the relationships among perceptions of cultural authenticity, place attachment, and authentic happiness and to verify the moderating effect of perceived safety. Through a questionnaire survey, 408 valid questionnaires from tourists were collected from ethnic villages in border areas of China, and the bootstrap method and parameter estimation method were used to test the hypotheses. The results show that cultural authenticity perception positively affects authentic happiness and place attachment; place attachment has a direct positive correlation with authentic happiness; place attachment has a partial mediating effect on the perception of cultural authenticity and authentic happiness; and perceived safety has a moderating effect on place attachment and authentic happiness. Attaching importance to the excavation and protection of the cultural authenticity of frontier ethnic villages and enhancing tourists’ perceptions of the cultural authenticity of frontier ethnic villages are conducive to promoting their place attachment to frontier ethnic villages and, at the same time, can enhance tourists’ sense of authentic happiness. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2024-05-02-07 Full Text: PDF