Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources

Transcription

1 March, 2014 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1 J. Resour. Ecol (1) DOI: /j.issn x Article Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources CHEN Xianger 1,2, CAI Jianming 1 *, YANG Zhenshan 1 and Natasha WEBSTER 3 1 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing , China; 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing , China; 3 Stockholm University, SE Stockholm, Sweden Abstract: Tourists authentic perceptions are crucial for the development of world heritage resources. The paper focuses on exploring the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Through the empirical study on the Forbidden City in Beijing, we find that the ships between the above two factors can be simulated by the model of set theory in algebra. As a result, five types of set ships are proposed: separation, intersection, inclusion I, inclusion II and superposition. According to sample distribution rules, the set ships can be further divided into primary set ships and secondary set ships. The study on set ships based on demographic characteristic of tourists by using two-way analysis of variance method shows that the tourists in different groups of gender, ages, levels of education, visit frequencies and levels of early perspectives have different perceptions for the set ships. The findings in this paper are helpful for identifying effects of the authenticity-based exploitation of world heritage resources and proposing future strategies for world heritage resources from tourists authentic perspectives. Key words: Key words: set ships; tourists authentic perceptions; authenticity-based development; world heritage resources; the Forbidden City 1 Introduction The development of world heritage tourism is one issue of concern in recent years (Balcar and Pearce1996; Fyall and Garrod 1998). The transformation of heritage resources into tourism-based products has become an important global trend (Apostolakis 2003; Yeoman et al. 2007). Specifically, key scenic spots, which are inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites (hereafter, WHSs) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), are extremely attractive to global tourists and treated as centre pieces in promoting the tourism industry (Yang et al. 2010). By 2013 the number of sites inscribed by UNESCO in China reached 45 and these sites are represented by three types of heritage: cultural, natural, and mixed (both cultural and natural). China ranks the second in the world for the number of heritage sites and consequently world heritage tourism has thrived throughout the country (Wang 2007). However, with the boom of world heritage tourism, tensions appear between protection/conservation of world heritage resources and commercial/economic development of heritage tourism (Kim and Jamal 2007; Waller and Lea 1999). Although the World Heritage List resulted from an international agreement aimed at identifying, recognizing, and protecting those sites with global value, the World Heritage Sites are increasingly used as a tool for national tourism marketing campaigns (Li et al. 2008). The scholars opposing the commercialization of world heritage demonstrate their views mainly from two aspects which are toured objects and tourists. They believe that the development with the commercial purpose will bring the lack of authenticity (Watson and Kopachevsky 1994; Halewood and Hannam 2001; Shepherd 2002). With the missing of authenticity of toured objects because of commercialization, Received: Accepted: Foundation: National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No ). * Corresponding author: CAI Jianming. caijm@igsnrr.ac.cn.

2 CHEN Xianger, et al.: Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources 21 the tourists only can arrive at false consciousness (MacCannell 1973). However there are some other scholars issuing a different voice, and they think that authenticity and commercialization can be mutually beneficial (Cohen 1988b; Naoi 2004). In addition, some scholars hold a neutral attitude that is both adverse and beneficial effects can be brought by commercialization of tourism (Borg et al. 1996). In fact, authenticity is the heart of the conflicts between heritage protection and tourism development. Authenticity was firstly proposed by Martin Heidegger in his book Being and Time (Pearce and Moscardo 1986). Heidegger used the term authenticity to indicate that someone is being themselves existentially. The concept of authenticity as a widely accepted terminology in the field of heritage studies began from the promulgation of The Venice Charter. From then on, the approval of world heritage must be subjected to the test of authenticity. The Nara Document on authenticity put forward a complete conceptual framework of authenticity for heritage protection. Although some scholars (Schudson 1979; Urry 1990) believe that the conventional concepts of authenticity can t explain some activities belonging to tourism such as shopping, visiting friends and relatives and so on, it is recognized that there are close links between authenticity and world heritage. Authenticity can be viewed as an important attribute (Boniface and Fowler 1993), an enhanced factor (Cohen 1988a) or one core character (Waitt 2000; Taylor 2001) for heritage tourism. Although the authenticity of world heritage may be damaged by tourism use or through commoditization (Ho and McKercher 2004), the commercial tourism development of world heritage is still an irreversible trend in the context of today. The tourism use of world heritage assets can promote local socio-economic development. Historic resources can be valorised to facilitate revenue generation and economic growth through tourism (Wang and Bramwell 2011). Heritage resources have been part of urban regeneration or rural revitalisation schemes in that they have become integral with neoliberal strategies to improve the competitiveness of places (Harvey 2005). If only focusing on the conservation of authentic connotations of world heritage and denying socio-economic development, we will condemn places to economic impoverishment (Yang et al. 2008). At the same time, the preservation of world heritage also relies on the commercial tourism use of heritage. The commercial use of heritage may also be considered necessary in order to generate the funding required to protect it (Chhabra 2009). And without an economic justification, conservation policies and practices of world heritage would not be established or justified in the minds of community members and leaders. The above analyses show that not all of tourism development will destroy world heritage resources. Just the heritage development ignoring authenticity will bring about damage to world heritage. Therefore, the core issues of world heritage resources at present is not whether to develop heritage tourism or not, but how to better develop heritage tourism based on authenticity. In particular, tourists authentic perceptions are crucial for better developing authenticity-based tourism of world heritage resources. As other scholars (Chhabra et al. 2003) have mentioned that on the supply side, heritage tourism is widely looked to as a tool for community economic development, and in terms of demand, heritage tourism is representative of many contemporary visitors desire (hereafter, tourists) to directly experience. In other words, the authentic perceptions of tourists must be taken into account in the process of world heritage tourism. Firstly, one of the objectives of world heritage tourism development is to meet psychological needs of tourists, and tourists authentic perceptions are important parts of psychological experience of heritage tourists. Furthermore, tourists authentic perceptions are one important standard for measuring the quality of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Only when the tourists authentic perceptions are realized through heritage tour, the authenticity-based development of cultural heritage can be said to be successful. In addition, it is shortcuts to identify the deficiencies and shape future strategies of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage through understanding tourists authentic perceptions. However, tourists authentic perceptions towards world heritage are often neglected in the entire system of world heritage tourism development. Instead, government interventions and experts advice always play central roles for determining priorities between heritage protection and tourism-related development at heritage sites (Wang and Bramwell 2012). In China, tourism plannings of world heritage generally lack the participation of tourists, and the views of tourists rarely receive attention in the tourism planning process. Given that the tourism development of world heritage based on authenticity is an irreversible trend and tourists authentic perceptions are crucial for world heritage tourism development. The paper focuses on exploring the internal ships between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Thereby we can identify the current state of cultural heritage tourism development and propose future strategies for authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage from the perspectives of tourists. For doing empirical research, the paper takes the Forbidden City (a famous world heritage site in Beijing) as the research site. 2 Objective authenticity and subjective authenticity MacCannell (1973) first cited the concept of the authenticity into the sociology of tourism. The staged authenticity of tourist experiences was introduced with his influential papers about four decades ago. Recognizing the essential

3 22 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1, 2014 importance of authenticity in the development of heritage resources, a considerable number of scholars have devoted into the study of the agenda. So far four schools of thoughts on authenticity in tourism can be identified as objectivism authenticity, postmodernism authenticity, constructivism authenticity and existential authenticity (Wang 1999). Generally speaking, objectivism authenticity refers to a museum-linked and objectivist conception of authenticity, and the realization of tourist authenticity demands is based on the recognition of the toured objects as authentic (MacCannell 1973; Buck 1978). Postmodernism authenticity deconstructs the concept of objective authenticity. McGregor (2000) points out authenticity requirements of tourists to toured objects will be gradually weakened along with the transformation of tourists to postmodernists. Asplet and Cooper (2000) verify the view of McGregor by researching cultural designs in New Zealand souvenir clothing. The notion of authenticity in constructivism is relative, negotiable (Cohen 1988a), ideological (Silver 1993) and contextually determined (Salamone 1997). It follows that authenticity is constructed by peoples dreams, stereotyped images, and expectations onto toured objects (Bruner 1991). In other words, tourists are in pursuit of symbolic authenticity. The concept of existential authenticity does not belong to the production of tourism research (Steiner and Reisinger 2006). It is contained by the philosophical tradition research that is about what it means to be human and what it means to be oneself (Nehemas 1999). In 1990s existential authenticity began to appear in the literatures of tourism research (Turner and Manning 1988; Hughes 1995). Wang N. summarizes the core ideas of existential authenticity in tourism: Existential authenticity can often have nothing to do with the issue of whether toured objects are real. In search of tourist experience which is existentially authentic, tourists are preoccupied with an existential state of being activated by certain tourist activities (Wang 1999). The studies about the ships between authenticitybased tourism development of world heritage and tourists authentic perceptions are based on the understanding of objective authenticity and subjective authenticity. Some studies have directly explored the interrelated issues about objective authenticity and subjective authenticity. For illuminating the links between them, some concepts were used by scholars such as sincerity (Taylor 2001), reality and truth (Reisinger and Steiner 2006), meaning-making and anxiety (Steiner and Reisinger 2006). The concepts of cool authenticity and hot authenticity are abstracted to respectively relate the experience of a real world to authenticity as knowledge and the experience of a real self to authenticity as feeling (Selwyn 1996). Handler and Saxton (1988) point out the distinction of a real world and real selves. Bruner (1991) thinks that the authenticity of toured-objects is distorted to meet the need of visitors. Goulding (2000) identifies three types of visitors with respect to how they perceive authenticity. Yu and Littrell (2003) conclude that there are four factors of authenticity which relate to craft souvenirs. In addition, the connotations of objective authenticity and subjective authenticity can be found from literatures about four approaches of authenticity in tourism. And even we can say that the key issue of tourism authenticity theory is to explore the ships between objective authenticity and subjective authenticity. According to Wang (1999), The issue of authenticity in tourism can be differentiated into two separate issues: that of tourist experiences (or authentic experiences) and that of toured objects. And four approaches of authenticity in tourism can be summarized as two basic genres namely object-based authenticity and existential authenticity (Kolar and Zabkar 2010). Objectivism authenticity regards the authenticity of toured objects as the core element. And it holds that authenticity is the inherent characteristics of toured objects. Postmodern authenticity also focuses on the authenticity of toured objects. However the characteristics of postmodern authenticity are embodied by deconstructing the concept of objective authenticity (Hughes 1995). Constructivism authenticity considers both objective authenticity and subjective authenticity from the constructional views. The scholars of existentialism insist on understanding the concept of authenticity from the perspectives of subjective tourists rather than from the toured objects. Based on the previous research and combined with the purposes of the study, we propose the following definitions for objective authenticity and subjective authenticity. Objective authenticity means the inherent historical and cultural significance of world heritage probing from objective points of view, and in the process of identifying objective authenticity, the investigators try to avoid including their own subjective perceptions. However, the investigators have different backgrounds, purposes and views, so it is inevitable that their subjective judgments and feelings become embedded into the meanings of objective authenticity. As a result, different investigators reach different conclusions while forming the notion of objective authenticity. Subjective authenticity means the authentic feelings of visitors arising from the experience of visiting world heritage. The contents of subjective authenticity contain two main parts. One is the visitors understanding for the objective authenticity of world heritage, the other one is the visitors realization of their true selves. As Zeppal and Hall (1991) have pointed out that heritage tourism is based on nostalgia for the past, both real and imagined, combined with the desire to experience diverse cultural landscapes and forms. Objective authenticity and subjective authenticity are the basis for the authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage and tourists authentic perceptions. There are close links between authenticity-based tourism development and objective authenticity of world heritage.

4 CHEN Xianger, et al.: Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources 23 Both of the cores of them are the authenticity of toured objects (world heritage). The authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage goes all the way around the objective authenticity of world heritage. At the same time, intrinsic links exists between tourists authentic perceptions and subjective authenticity. Both of their kernels are the authenticity of persons (tourists). The contents of tourists authentic perceptions are part of subjective authenticity and derived from subjective authenticity. From the above definitions of objective and subjective authenticity, we can see that objective authenticity and subjective authenticity continuously shape the understanding of each other. And the links between objective and subjective authenticity determine the internal ships between authenticity-based tourism development and tourists authentic perceptions. In the following areas, we will further explore the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development through the empirical research of the Forbidden City. 3 Empirical study The empirical research has two purposes: one is to build an appropriate ship model between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development. Another main purpose is to further study the ship model abstracted from the perspective of socio-demographic of tourists which include gender, ages, levels of education, visit frequencies and levels of early perspectives. The empirical survey was undertaken in October 2012 and January 2014 in the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the royal palace for the Ming and Qing dynasties of China. It is the largest and most well-preserved complex of palaces in China, as well as the largest group of palaces in the world. In 1987 the Forbidden City was placed in World Heritage List by UNESCO. The Forbidden City is the pride of the Chinese, and also the precious world heritage of all mankind. At the same time, the Forbidden City is a popular attraction in Beijing, and to a certain extent, the Forbidden City has become a symbol of tourism of Beijing. According to the data released by the official website of the Forbidden City ( shtml/115/@/9036.html#34#48), the tour of the Forbidden City can be divided into two periods which are the boom season and the off-season. October belongs to the boom season because of National Day holiday and pleasant weather and during this time the number of tourists visiting the Forbidden City is large. January is part of the offseason due to cold weather and the number of tourists in the period is small. The time of the empirical investigation in the paper covers the boom season and the off-season, so the survey results are more comprehensive and reasonable. The form of questionnaire surveys is selected as the most appropriate for gaining the information needed. Given that the contents and purposes of the survey do not require strict constraints of time and location, the release of the questionnaires are taken with random distribution approach. 800 questionnaires were distributed to the tourists visiting the Forbidden City (300 questionnaires were distributed in October 2012 and 500 questionnaires were distributed in January 2014), and all of the respondents were Chinese. The actual number of samples counted in the paper did not reach 800 copies, because some respondents did not complete all of the options in questionnaires, In order to explore tourists authentic perceptions towards authenticity-based tourism development, we make clear scopes for the contents of the authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City. Given that the core values of the Forbidden City as world heritage lie in its world's largest and best preserved wooden palace buildings and more than 150 million pieces of precious collections, the contents of the authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City from the whole level are set to contain buildings and collections, Furthermore, the contents of the authenticity-based tourism development of the buildings are set to include building technology, layout, building art, appearance structure and literary quotations. And the contents of the authenticity-based tourism development of the collections are set to cover chinaware, paintings, calligraphy and bronze ware. All of the contents of the authenticity-based tourism development designed in our questionnaires are carefully taken from the relevant information in the official website of the Forbidden City ( html). So the content set for the authenticity-based tourism development of the whole, buildings and collections almost include the actual contents of tourism development of the Forbidden City. Specially, we design the option of other cases to represent the other contents of authenticitybased tourism development of the Forbidden City (the whole, buildings and collections) from tourists authentic perceptions excluding the above contents that have been set for authenticity-based tourism development in the questionnaires. The option of other cases implies a very important meaning that it represents tourists special perceptions which are not limited to the general perceptions towards the authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City that have been done. Table 1 shows the options designed for the contents of authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City. 4 Results and analysis 4.1 Set ships In the empirical study, we finally get the results of tourists choices for options that reflect tourists authentic perceptions for authenticity-based tourism development of the whole, buildings and collections of the Forbidden City, through asking tourists three questions in the questionnaires that are what contents of tourism development of the Forbidden City make you get authentic perceptions ; what contents of tourism development of the buildings of the

5 24 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1, 2014 Forbidden City make you get authentic perceptions and what contents of tourism development of the collections of the Forbidden City make you get authentic perceptions (The corresponding options of the three questions are showed in Table 1). Through analyzing the rules of the results of tourists choices for options, we find that the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and actual authenticitybased tourism development of the Forbidden City can be simulated by the model of set theory in algebra. As a result, five kinds of set ships are categorized which are separation, intersection, inclusion I, inclusion II and superposition (see Table 2). The meanings of five types of set ships between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticitybased tourism development are as follows. Separation indicates the objects of tourists authentic perceptions are completely different from the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development of the world heritage. In this case, the connotations of tourists authentic feelings are separated from the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Intersection refers to that the contents of the actual authenticity-based tourism development and tourists authentic perceptions are partly same and partly different. In the different part, the objects of tourists authentic perceptions have nothing to do with the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development. Inclusion includes two sub-type of ships, dubbed as inclusion I and inclusion II. In inclusion I the contents of actual authenticitybased tourism development are totally contained by the objects of tourists authentic perceptions. In other words, tourists may have more other authenticity feelings besides the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City. Inclusion II refers to a completely opposite situation, in which the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development absolutely cover that of tourists authentic perceptions. That is to say, the objects of tourists authentic perceptions only extract from partial contents of actual authenticitybased tourism development. Superposition means both authenticity-based tourism development and tourists authentic perceptions contain exactly the same contents. Table 3 summarizes all the set ships in algebra Table 1 The options designed for the contents of authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City. Options The contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development The other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development from tourists authentic perceptions The whole A-buildings ; B-collections ; C-historic culture ; D-interpretation system E-other cases Buildings A-building technology ; B-layout ; C-building art ; D-appearance structure ; F-other cases E-literary quotations Collections A-chinaware ; B-paintings ; C-calligraphy ; D-bronze ware E-other cases Table 2 Options combination of five types of the set ships in the questionnaires. The set ships Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Superposition The whole E AE/BE/CE/DE/ABE/ACE/ ABCDE A/B/C/D/AB/AC/AD/BC/ ABCD ADE/BCE/BDE/CDE/ABCE/ BD/CD/ABC/ABD/ACD/BCD ABDE/ACDE/BCDE Buildings F AF/BF/CF/DF/EF/ABF/ACF/ ABCDEF A/B/C/D/E/AB/AC/ ABCDE ADF/AEF/BCF/BDF/BEF/ AD/AE/BC/BD/BE/ CDF/CEF/DEF/ABCF/ABDF/ CD/CE/DE/ABC/ABD/ ABEF/BCDF/BCEF/BDEF/ ABE/BCD/BCE/BDE/ CDEF/ABCDF/ABCEF/BCDEF CDE/ABCD/ABCE/BCDE Collections E AE/BE/CE/DE/ABE/ACE/ ABCDE A/B/C/D/AB/AC/AD/BC/ ABCD ADE/BCE/BDE/CDE/ABCE/ BD/CD/ABC/ABD/ACD/BCD ABDE/ACDE/BCDE Notes: The content of the options designed in questionnaires are as follows: The whole: A-buildings ; B-collections ; C-historic culture ; D-interpretation system ; E-other cases. Buildings: A-building technology ; B-layout ; C-building art ; D-appearance structure ; E-literary quotations ; F-other cases. Collections: A-chinaware ; B-paintings ; C-calligraphy ; D-bronze ware ; E-other cases.

6 CHEN Xianger, et al.: Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources 25 Table 3 Algebra expressions of the set ships. The set ships Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Superposition Algebra expressions A B and BËA AÇB and A¹B AÍB and A¹B AÊB and A¹B AÍB and BÍA Notes: A stands for the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development; B stands for the objects of tourists authentic perceptions. expression. The five types of set ships reflect different objects of tourists authentic perceptions in the process of world heritage tourism which contain actual and other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development (see Fig. 1). Among them, inclusion II and superposition indicate that the actual contents of authenticity-based development of world heritage are the only target of tourists perceptions. Distinctively, tourists who choose inclusion II only can apperceive partial actual connotations of world heritage development. However people belonging to superposition can perceive all of actual contents of world heritage development. Intersection and inclusion I imply that both of actual and other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage are objects of tourists authentic perceptions. In intersection people apperceive partial actual contents of development in addition to other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. However, tourists choosing inclusion I perceive all of actual contents of world heritage besides other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development. Separation indicates that tourists only select the other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development as the objects of authentic perceptions from their own authentic perceptions, with ignoring the actual contents of development. 4.2 Primary set ships and secondary set ships Based on the corresponding rules showed by Table 2, we abstract the data distribution rules of different kinds of the set ships (see Table 4). Concretely speaking, there are all of five types of the set ships in the empirical research. However, the sample amount corresponding to the data distribution exist significant differences among five types of the set ships: inclusion II accounts for the major share of the sample, Although the sample number of superposition are significantly The set ships ATP ATD ATD ATP ATD Notes: ATD stands for the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development; TAP stands for the objects of tourists authentic perceptions. TAP TAP TAP ATD TAP Inclusion Ⅱ Superposition Intersection Inclusion Ⅰ Separation Fig.1 Five kinds of the set ships. Table 4 The sample distribution of the set ships. The set ships Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Superposition The whole Number Percentage (%) Buildings Number Percentage (%) Collections Number Percentage (%) Total Number / Total

7 26 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1, 2014 less than inclusion II, the secondary position is occupied by superposition ; The remaining three types of the set ships which are inclusion I, separation and intersection only take a small number of the sample. Through comparative analyses of the rules of data distribution, the five types of set ships can be further divided into primary set ships and secondary set ships. The so-called primary set ships are a general concept that means a collection of the set ships which account for majority of sample in empirical research. Secondary set ships collect some types of set ships which occupy minority of sample in empirical study. We can conclude from Fig.2 that in the empirical study of the Forbidden City, primary set ships are composed by inclusion II and superposition, because sample size of the above two types of the set ships account for the vast majority of the total number of sample, Among which inclusion II holds an absolute dominant position, and the sample number of superposition is in the second place. The secondary set ships is a general term for the remaining three types of set ships ( inclusion I, separation and intersection ), because the sample number of the three types of s are very small. In our opinions, with the development of world heritage tourism, the components of primary set ships and secondary set ships will change. In the beginning of world heritage tourism development, primary set ships are composed by inclusion II and superposition, and the Forbidden City is an example of that situation. The components of primary set ship indicate that most tourists are concerned about the contents of actual authenticity-based world heritage tourism development. While with the development of world heritage tourism, it is likely that the remaining three types of set ships ( inclusion I, separation and intersection ) will increasingly become members of primary set ships. The changes imply that in future more and more tourists will focus on finding other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development from their own perceptions, not just to appreciate the authenticity of actual world heritage tourism development. The transformation trend can be checked through comparing the set ships at different stages of world heritage development, and the subject can be served as a topic of the next research. 4.3 The study of set ships from demographic characteristics After applying the set ships to explain the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and actual authenticity-based tourism development, the paper further explore the whole set ships of the Forbidden The whole Buildings Collections Separation Intersection Inclusion Inclusion Superposition II I The whole Buildings Collections Sumple number Fig. 2 Comparative analyses of overall and partial set ships. City from the perspective of demographic characteristics of tourists which contain gender, age, level of education, visit frequency, level of early perspective. Actually, there have been some papers about how authenticity is associated with the psychological demands of tourists. Waitt (2000) once revealed important differences in the perceived level of authenticity with respect to gender, income, education level, position in lifecycle, place of residence, and previous visitations in the process of examining perception of authenticity of The Rocks which is a historical neighborhood in Australia restored and redesigned by the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority. Mcintosh and Prentice (1999) identified how British tourists affirm authenticity through visiting socio-industrial world heritage attractions. In particular, three distinct thought processes were identified: reinforced assimilation, cognitive perception, and retroactive association. Pocock (1992) studied the perspectives of tourists to South Tyneside, and the respondents believed that they got authentic experience based on their early image of Cookson s novel Profile of sample According to the corresponding options combination of the whole set ships in Table 2 and combining with the socio-demographic data of tourists visiting the Forbidden City, we obtain the data that reflecting the links between the whole set ships and socio-demographic characteristic of tourists (see Table 5). The sample in the survey is slightly gender-biased with less male than female participants. Younger age groups predominate in the sample with large number of participants coming from years and years age groups. Tourists with undergraduate degree account for over half the sample. The remaining sample is shared by people with senior high school and with master s degree or doctor s degree. With the visit frequency of respondents increases, the diminishing number of participants present. The early perspective of participants is divided into five levels, and the higher level represents the deeper early perspective. The sample is dominated by

8 CHEN Xianger, et al.: Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources 27 Table 5 Data distribution of the whole set ships based on demographic characteristics. Variable Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Superposition N P (%) N P (%) N P (%) N P (%) N P (%) Gender (N=743) Male (N=364) Female (N=379) Age (N=743) (N=324) (N=359) (N=51) (N=9) Level of education (N=743) Senior high school (N=199) Undergraduate degree (N=406) Master s degree or doctor s degree (N=138) Visit frequency (N=721) Once (N=396) Twice (N=206) Third (N=66) Fourth(N=53) Level of early perspective (N=746) The first level (N=70) The second level (N=500) The third level (N=131) The fourth level (N=31) The fifth level (N=14) Notes: N stands for number of respondents; P stands for percentage of respondents. people with the second level of early perspective. From the second level, with the level increasing the number of sample shows a decreasing trend Distribution rules of the whole set ships We move forward a step to study the distribution rules of the whole set ships of the Forbidden City based on socio-demographic characteristics. It is apparent in Table 5 that primary set ships ( inclusion II and superposition ) also occupy most of the sample based on demographic characteristic of tourists, among which inclusion II holds an absolute dominant position, and the sample number of superposition is in the second place. Only a small portion of the sample is held by secondary set ships ( inclusion I, separation and intersection ). The findings are consistent with the above content about primary set ships and secondary set ships. The results of the distribution rules of set ships based on demographic characteristics reflect the content that tourists focus on during their tours. In the case of the Forbidden City, the samples of all groups of respondents are dominated by two kinds of set ships which are inclusion II and superposition. The situation indicates that most of current tourists belonging to different groups of demographic characteristic are concerned about the contents of actual authenticity-based tourism development of the Forbidden City. And that indicates the majority of Chinese tourists have not yet entered the stage of experience tour. However, we can not ignore an important phenomenon that is a small portion of the samples are held by inclusion I, separation and intersection. The situations imply that some tourists start to find perception for their own real feelings, and not just to focus on the authenticity of actual tourism development of the toured objects Differences of five types of set ships In order to illustrate whether there are significant differences among five types of the set ships based on demographic characteristic of tourists, the data are analyzed by using two-way analysis of variance method (ANOVA) by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science (version 10)). Similarly, Chhabra (2003) once

9 28 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1, 2014 conducted ANOVA tests to see the differences of the level of perceived authenticity in heritage tourism. In this paper, we consider differences significant if sig.< α, unless indicated otherwise. We can see from Table 6 that there are significant differences among five types of set ships respectively linked to gender, age, level of education, visit frequency of tourists. However no significant differences exist among five types of set ships associated with the level of early perspective group. We further explore differences of tourists perceptions on set ships through calculating estimated marginal means of sample using two-way analysis of variance method by SPSS. The purposes of the research are to realize the classification of the tourists according to their different perceptions for the set ships. The analytical principles of scatter diagrams of respond (Fig.3) based on ANOVA are as follows: the closer the distance among the lines are, the smaller the differences among the corresponding variables are. And the farer the distance among the lines are, the bigger the differences among the corresponding variables are. Table 6 Differences among five types of the set ships based on demographic characteristics. Variable Sample number Sig. of set ships Notes: sig. stands for signature based on two-way analysis of variance; α stands for significance level based on two-way analysis of variance. The tourists in different groups of demographic characteristic have different perceptions on the set ships. We can find from scatter diagrams of respond (see Fig. 3) that different lines representing corresponding variables are parallel to each other in all groups of demographic characteristic. The lines respectively α Comparison Gender sig.< α Age sig.< α Level of education sig.< α Visit frequency sig.< α Level of early perspective sig.> α Estimated marginal means Scatter diagram of response (age) Age: Estimated marginal means Scatter diagram of response (education) Education level: Senior high school Undergraduate Mater or doctor -50 Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Set ships Superposition -50 Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Set ships Superposition Scatter diagram of response (visit frequency) Scatter diagram of response (early perspective) Estimated marginal means Visit frequency: Once Twice Third Fourth Estimated marginal means Early perspective: First Second Third Fourth Fifth -50 Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Set ships Superposition -50 Separation Intersection Inclusion I Inclusion II Superposition Set ships Fig. 3 Differences of tourists perceptions on the set ships.

10 CHEN Xianger, et al.: Set Relationships between Tourists Authentic Perceptions and Authenticity of World Heritage Resources 29 corresponding to and age groups are close to each other, and the lines respectively standing for and age groups are another pair which close to each other. But the distance between the two new groups of lines is significant. The above phenomenon indicates that there are no significant differences among the respondents in age groups for the set ships, and the same conclusion also applies to the respondents in age groups. However significant differences for the set ships exist between age groups and age groups. The methods of analyzing age groups are the same as the analytical methods of education, visit frequency and early perspective groups, so in the following content only key findings will be given. There are significant differences between participants in undergraduate degree group and the remaining two groups of respondents (people in senior high school group and in master s or doctor s degree group). Significant differences exist among respondents visiting the Forbidden City three or four times, people visiting the Forbidden City once and tourists visiting twice. There are significant differences between people in the second level of early perspective and people in other four levels of early perspective. In addition, this method can not analyze people in the gender groups because there are not enough gender-based groups. At the same time, there are deeper reasons for the differences of tourists perceptions on the set ships, and the relative content should be further explored in the future study. 5 Conclusions and discussion The pivotal issues of world heritage at present is not whether to develop world heritage tourism or not, but how to better develop world heritage tourism based on authenticity. In particular, tourists authentic perceptions are crucial for better developing authenticity-based world heritage tourism. So this paper focuses on exploring the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. The core value of the paper lies in finding that the ships between tourists authentic perceptions and actual authenticity-based tourism development can be simulated by set theory model in algebra through the empirical research of the Forbidden City. Accordingly, five kinds of set ships can be categorized which are separation, intersection, inclusion I, inclusion II and superposition. And the connotations of the five types of set ships cover all of possible situations of tourists authentic perceptions towards actual authenticitybased tourism development, and reflect different objects of tourists authentic perceptions in the process of world heritage tourism which contain actual and other potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development. So the findings about the set ships will be helpful for identifying the current state of authenticity-based world heritage tourism development and proposing future strategies of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage from the perspective of tourists. How to use the set ships to identify the current state of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage from the perspective of tourists? The primary set ships give the answer. Primary set ships are a general concept that means a collection of the set ships which account for majority of sample in empirical research. So the components of the primary set ships reflect the authentic perceptions of most tourists towards actual contents of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. In the empirical study of the whole set ships of the Forbidden City, primary set ships are composed by inclusion II and superposition, among which inclusion II holds an absolute dominant position (see Table 4 and Fig. 2). That shows the actual contents of authenticity-based development of the Forbidden City are the only target of tourists perceptions. In addition, the study of the distribution rules of the set ships based on socio-demographic also shows that inclusion II and superposition occupy most of the sample in every group of demographic characteristic of tourists visiting the Forbidden City. Generally speaking, the current authenticity-based development of the Forbidden City can meet most tourists needs to achieve authentic feelings. So from the perspective of tourists the actual tourism development of the Forbidden City which put the authenticity of buildings and collections as core elements is effective and successful. The future strategies of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage contain two aspects. One aspect is to improve actual authenticity-based development. The inspiration of the improvement of current authenticitybased development comes from different perceptions of tourists for authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Because in our opinion the essence of improving actual authenticity-based development is the provision of pluralistic and custom-built services according to different psychological needs of tourists. And the study of the differences of the set ships based on demographic characteristic of tourists fitly reflects tourists different perceptions for current contents of tourism development. In the empirical research of the Forbidden City, we find that there are significant differences among five types of the set ships respectively linked to gender, age, level of education, visit frequency of tourists. That is to say the perceptions of tourists for current contents of tourism development are dissimilar who are respectively in the groups of gender, age, level of education and visit frequency of tourists. So the objects of custom-built services of the Forbidden City should be targeted at the tourists respectively with different gender, age, level of education and visit frequency. In addition, the empirical study of inner differences of the set ships further implies

11 30 Journal of Resources and Ecology Vol.5 No.1, 2014 the deep-seated differences of tourists perceptions on set ships in every group of demographic characteristic. According to the results of the interrelated analyses, we get the following conclusions: the custom-built services of the Forbidden City should be respectively provided for the tourists in age groups and age groups; the tourists in undergraduate degree group; the tourists visiting the Forbidden City once and twice; the tourists with the second level of early perspective for the Forbidden City. All of the above custom-built services targeted at tourists with different characteristic form a wide range of pluralistic development of the Forbidden City. Creating new tourism attractions is the other aspect of the future strategies of authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. How the set ships play important roles in creating new tourism attractions? The connotations of inclusion I, separation and intersection give ideas to solve the problem, because the new tourism attractions originate from potential contents of authenticity-based tourism development from tourists authentic perceptions excluding the actual developmental contents. And the authentic perceptions of the tourists belonging to inclusion I, separation and intersection fitly contain the potential contents of authenticity-based development. So in the empirical research of the Forbidden City, we can get illumination of new tourism attractions by asking those tourists that what other potential contents of tourism development of the Forbidden City will make you get authentic feelings excluding the current developmental contents? In our empirical study, inclusion I, separation and intersection are the components of the secondary set ships, and the three types of set ships only take a small number of samples. So the contents of new tourism attractions of the Forbidden City by investigating the tourists lack accuracy and persuasion. Based on the above factors in this paper we don t give the contents of new tourism attractions. In future study, we can solve the problem by increasing the sample number. The distributions of five types of set ships in primary and secondary set ships also imply different situations and the future direction of world heritage tourism. With the development of world heritage tourism, the components of primary set ships and secondary set ships will change. The changing trend essentially reflect the transformation process of tourists authentic perception that is in future more and more tourists will no longer be satisfied with the actual contents of tourism development and start to find other potential contents of tourism development excluding the current contents. And the changing process of tourists psychological needs will create a progression of the authenticity-based tourism development of world heritage. Concretely, in the situation of tourism development of world heritage in case of the Forbidden City, the components of primary set ships indicate that the concern of the tourists authentic perceptions is current contents of authenticitybased development (the buildings and the collections in the Forbidden City). So the core of world heritage tourism development is to explore and improve the current contents of tourism development. However, the future development of world heritage tourism will focus on meet the psychological demands of tourists for other potential authenticity-based contents by pluralistic and custom-built services. References Apostolakis A The convergence process in heritage tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(4): Asplet M, M Cooper Cultural designs in New Zealand souvenir clothing: the question of authenticity. 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