Imagination And Authenticity:Studying Tourists' Sense Of Place On Ethnic Tourism Destination

How to make tourists experience intimate aesthetic,experience different meanings,Place and Sense of Place seems to be an important angle.The imagination of tourists is related to the initial perception of the ethnic tourist destination,while the perception of its authenticity is related to the subsequent experiences.The formation of tourists' Sense of Place is a complex process of integrating various factors,but at present the research on Sense of Place seems to ignore the two key factors of tourists' imagination and authenticity.There are still some ambiguous questions,for example,what kind of imagination do tourists have for places? How do these imaginations affect tourists' sense of place? What is the relationship between tourists' perception of authenticity and their sense of place?This paper takes Lugu lake scenic spot in Lijiang,Yunnan province as a case study.Firstly,this research sorts out and analyzes theories on the Geographical Imagination of Place,Sense of Place and Tourism Authenticity.Secondly,questionnaires are designed,distributed and collected,and exploratory factor analysis is used to obtain the dimensions of each theory.Then,the conceptual hypothesis model is constructed based on the theoretical hypothesis of each dimension supported by the literature.Finally,confirmatory factor analysis and path test are used to obtain the final structure model,path coefficient and mediating effects,and the research results are explained.This research draws three conclusions.(1)The Geographical imagination consists of three dimensions: Natural Imagination,Cultural Imagination and Emotional Imagination.The perception of tourists on Authenticity constitutes Objective Authenticity and Active Authenticity.The Sense of Place of tourists constitutes Place Attachment and Place Identity.(2)The formation of Place Identity has elements of tourists' Natural Imagination and Cultural Imagination of the tourist destination.However,the influence of Emotional Imagination on Place Identity is not significant.Tourists' perception of Objective Authenticity and Active Authenticity also participate in the formation of Place Attachment and Place Identity.In terms of Place Attachment,tourists' perception of Objective Authenticity has stronger influence on it.But the perception of Active Authenticity still has more stronger influence on Place Identity.(3)From the perspective of mediation model,Natural Imagination and Emotional Imagination have mediating effects on the paths to Place Attachment respectively.Tourists' perception of Objective Authenticity and Active Authenticity play a mediating role in the above paths.Natural Imagination and Cultural Imagination have mediating effects on the paths to Place Identity respectively.Tourists' perception of Objective Authenticity and Active Authenticity play a mediating role in the above paths.However,the mediating effect of Cultural Imagination on Place Attachment does not exist.At the same time,the results also show that the path from Emotional Imagination to Place Identity is not significant.Theoretically,this research attempts to explore an effective way to enrich the system of Sense of Place and explain its intrinsic mechanism.Also,this article suggests that the tourism ministry should attach to the tourists' place experience in practice.Particularly,the Ethnic Tourism Communities should reinforce the potent of tourists' cognitive,preference and emotional feelings on planning and management so as to promote the effective in place-making and place marketing.