1. Introduction
Intangible cultural heritage refers to oral traditions and forms of expression, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festivals, knowledge and practice concerning nature and the universe, and traditional handicraft [
1]. It embodies historical and cultural values and aesthetic habits of tourist destinations, and is naturally compatible with tourism development. In recent years, travelers have sought to experience a variety of performing arts, handicrafts, food, and traditional rituals, and intangible cultural heritage has become one of the main driving forces of tourism. The tourism industry can obtain large economic benefits from local intangible cultural heritage [
2]. Its unique cultural value can help tourist destinations gain irreplaceable market positioning and provide valuable content for product development and marketing. Intangible cultural heritage can provide a cultural travel experience to attract tourists, create economic value for the destination, and achieve sustainable development.
Transforming intangible cultural heritage into tourism products remains a challenge. Establishing intangible cultural heritage museums, theme parks, and live performances is considered an effective way to develop intangible cultural heritage [
3]. Product development depends not only on its own characteristics but also on paying attention to the needs of tourists. If the intangible cultural heritage products are not developed properly, then attracting tourists is difficult, thereby resulting in a waste of resources. How to continuously attract tourists and prolong the life of tourist destinations is an issue that has to be considered in developing intangible cultural heritage tourism products. Destinations need to conduct research on the tourist market to determine the most stimulating potential demand [
4]. Studies on the relationship between tourists and intangible cultural heritage are lacking [
5]. At the same time, promoting the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage is an issue that needs urgent attention and research. Therefore, how the intangible cultural heritage of tourist destinations can induce tourists’ interest and generate consumption intention deserves further study in theory and practice.
Cultural identity is often regarded as one of the key factors that influence intangible cultural heritage tourism [
6]. According to some studies, travel experience to a certain extent depends on the individual’s self-perceived identity-related needs and perception of the destination and experience that can meet these needs [
7]. In the context of globalization, intangible cultural heritage tourism provides tourists with various identity sources for the destination, and identity plays an important role in it. Intangible cultural heritage is the symbol and source of tourism destination identity because the cultural identity of intangible cultural heritage attracts the interest of tourists, thereby motivating travel experience. Positive cultural attitude and cognitive attitude will affect tourists’ satisfaction with the destination, and affect the follow-up behavior [
8]. Tourists’ cognition is for tourists to deal with the relevant information of the destination according to the on-the-spot tourism experience on the basis of perceived impressions, and form their own beliefs and judgments [
9]. Through cultural identity, tourists have reached a common cognitive basis for intangible cultural heritage to effectively guide consumer behavior and promote the sustainable development of tourism activities [
10]. At present, few studies on intangible cultural heritage tourism and identity are available [
5]. Research on intangible cultural heritage tourism has not clarified whether cultural identity will affect tourists’ consumption intention. This study takes Suzhou Kunqu Opera as a research object, and applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to consumer behavior to explore the impact of tourists’ cultural identity on intangible cultural heritage consumption intentions in developing intangible cultural heritage tourism. Results of this study provide information on the management and marketing of intangible cultural heritage in destination environments.
3. Research Hypothesis
Cultural value is the power to shape attitudes and influence people to accept or reject certain products or services [
41]. Cultural identity determines the extent to which people are integrated into social groups [
42]. Cultural characteristics can have an impact on people’s behavior, and many Asian countries, such as China, Japan, and South Korea, belong to a collectivist culture [
43]. People in a collective culture are willing to share scarce resources with others in the same society and form a positive attitude toward behaviors that help society prosper [
44]. Consumer attitudes are influenced by individual collectivism, long-term positioning, and degree of political participation [
45]. Nguyen, Lobo, and Greenland [
46] found that cultural identity and attitude are positively correlated. When a product contains national cultural symbols, consumers have a positive purchasing tendency. At the same time, the perceived spiritual symbol of the product is combined with self-identity recognition to further obtain emotional value [
47]. Therefore, the present study formulates the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Consumers’ cultural identity significantly and positively affects attitude toward behavior.
Recycling is important for consumers who value group norms [
48]. Ahn et al. [
49] believe that social norms and coherence are critical to environmentally friendly buying behavior in collectivist societies. Some studies suggest that when individuals build themselves in an interdependent way, they are more likely to follow the goal of social norms [
50]. Triandis [
51] found that the collectivist society has a strong connection with subjective norms. Long-term-oriented people tend to seek the opinions of others if they are uncertain about future interests before making any purchase decision [
52]. Social coherence provides confidence and motivates individuals to think that the entire society supports their decisions such that they make socially beneficial decisions. When people identify with national culture, they tend to think and act according to group norms and values [
53]. Therefore, the present study proposes the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Consumers’ cultural identity significantly and positively affects subjective norms.
When individuals can manipulate their behavioral outcomes positively, they represent an easy or difficult view of behavior. Moon et al. [
54] found that consumers in collectivist societies are willing to pay extra fees to obtain products that are considered socially beneficial. Individuals in the collective society have higher perceptual behavior control when deciding the products that are beneficial to the society. When individuals have a sense of identity and belonging to the cultural symbols and national characteristics in the intangible cultural heritage, they will have the objective conditions to understand the intangible cultural heritage. People with high cultural identity have lower perception of the behavioral difficulties of understanding cultural heritage, but have the perception of, among others, convenience and economy. Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Consumers’ cultural identity significantly and positively affects perceived behavioral control.
Howard and Sheth [
55] suggested that relevant groups, social classes, cultures, and subcultures influence the purchasing decision process. Cultural values are a powerful force to form a person’s attitude and behavior [
56]. Culture influences consumption, but theoretical and empirical analysis of this proposition is extremely limited [
57]. Cultural identity is not only the essential attribute of intangible cultural heritage products but also an important predictor of research on consumer behavior [
52]. Zhang [
58] constructed an analytical model of consumer purchasing behavior based on the motivation of Confucian cultural values and empirically analyzed symbolic buying behavior [
59]. Based on these findings, the present study suggests the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4 (H4). Cultural identity significantly and positively affects consumer behavior intention.
According to the theory of planned behavior, the intention of intangible cultural heritage tourism consumption behavior is mainly affected by behavior attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control. Specifically, people can form a rational evaluation of nonheritage consumption behavior or visiting and playing. The more positive the evaluation is, the more active the tourism consumption intention of intangible cultural heritage becomes. External stress perception will affect individuals’ intangible cultural heritage consumption behavior. When individuals are influenced by important others (family, friends, teachers, etc.) and society, intangible cultural heritage consumption intention is more positive. Consumption intention will also be affected by the implementation conditions (such as convenience, difficulty, etc.). The more favorable the perceived objective conditions, the higher the consumption intention of intangible cultural heritage. The applicability of planned behavior theory to consumer behavior intention has been widely verified [
60,
61]. Therefore, the present study suggests the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 5 (H5). Attitude toward behavior significantly and positively influences consumption behavior intention.
Hypothesis 6 (H6). Subjective norms significantly and positively influence consumption behavior intention.
Hypothesis 7 (H7). Perceived behavioral control significantly and positively influences consumption behavior intention.
Based on the preceding hypotheses, the main dimensions of this study include cultural identity, attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and willingness to consume.
Figure 1 presents a corresponding model diagram.
5. Analysis and Discussion
5.1. Reliability and Validity Test
First, the present study used Cronbach’s alpha (α) method to analyze the reliability of the sample data. Generally, when the Cronbach’s α coefficient is greater than 0.7, the internal consistency effect is good and the reliability is high.
Table 2 shows that Cronbach’s α coefficient for each latent variable is significantly larger than 0.7. In addition, the overall reliability of the questionnaire is 0.930, indicating that the scale passes the reliability test. The questionnaire has good internal consistency. Second, the KMO test method was used to analyze the structural validity of the scale. Results showed that the KMO value of each potential variable was greater than the minimum standard value of 0.5 (
Table 3). The overall KMO value of the scale was 0.922, indicating that the data of the present study are suitable for factor analysis. Consequently, the cumulative interpretation variation of the common factors extracted was 71.559%, which is more than 50%. Thus, the structural validity of the sample data is good.
The validity of the questionnaire was also tested in this study. Content validity was mainly based on previous theoretical research and a large number of preliminary studies. At the same time, experts were invited to evaluate the questionnaire, which was revised based on their opinions and the final scale was formed. Therefore, we can ensure that this study has good content validity. The construct validity was mainly realized by exploratory factor analysis. Finally, 29 measurement items of the scale were tested for reliability, and the corrected item-total correlation for each item was greater than 0.4, indicating a strong correlation between the index and total scale of measurement as well as good reliability; the factor loadings after rotation were all greater than 0.4, all passed the t-test, and were significant at p < 0.01 level. The validity of the scale was guaranteed.
5.2. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
CFA aims to test whether the relationship between a factor and the corresponding measure item conforms to the theoretical relationship designed by the researcher. Among the relevant indicators, CR is the combination reliability, 0.7 is the acceptable threshold, and AVE is the average variance extracted value, which is recommended to be greater than 0.4 to test the internal consistency. In this study, CFA was conducted on five measurement dimensions: cultural identity, behavioral attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and consumption intention.
Table 3 shows that CR of each dimension is greater than 0.7, AVE is greater than 0.4, and the standardized factor loading of all measurement indexes on their respective latent variables ranged from 0.690 to 0.885, which is greater than 0.5 and less than 0.9, indicating that the basic fitness of the model is good. The larger the factor loading value, the greater the variation that the index variable can be explained by the structure; thus, the index variable can effectively reflect the structural characteristics to be measured [
72]. Through the CFA of each dimension, the model built in this study is of good quality, and the index can effectively reflect the structural characteristics to be measured.
5.3. Model Fitting Effect
After reliability and validity were guaranteed, the present study selected the absolute fitness index χ2/df, RMSEA, GFI, AGFI, value-added fitness index NFI, CFI, IFI, and other indicators to determine the model fit. Results showed that the χ2/df statistic was 1.461 (match standard <3). Moreover, the RMSEA value was 0.039 (match standard <0.08), and the other indexes (GFI = 0.923, AGFI = 0.903, NFI = 0.920, CFI = 0.973, and IFI = 0.973) were all more than 0.900. The results showed that the overall fitting result of the sample was good and reached the corresponding matching standard (
Table 4).
5.4. Hypothesis Verification Results
AMOS 22.0 was used to verify the proposed hypothesis, and then the structural model path inspection table (
Table 5) and structural equation model path diagram (
Figure 2) were obtained.
- (1)
Mechanism of cultural identity on consumption intention
Figure 2 and
Table 5 show that cultural identity has a significant positive effect on consumer behavioral attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and consumption intentions. Among these factors, cultural identity has a significant positive effect on consumers’ behavioral attitudes (
,
); thus, H1 is established. Cultural identity has a significant positive effect on consumers’ subjective norms (
,
); thus, H2 is established. Cultural identity has a significant positive effect on perceived behavioral control (
,
); thus, H3 is established. Cultural identity has a significant positive effect on consumption intention (
,
); thus, H4 is established.
As an antecedent variable, cultural identity has an important influence on behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Cultural identity also has a direct effect on the consumption intention of intangible cultural heritage. Thus, consumers’ cultural identity of Kunqu Opera, as an intangible cultural heritage, has a positive effect on individuals’ attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which ultimately results in a positive willingness to consume Kunqu Opera. This finding verifies the influence path of cultural identity-consumption intention. In the measurement process of this study, tourists’ cultural identification with Kunqu Opera includes three dimensions: Kunqu culture, value, and identity. Therefore, in the development of intangible cultural heritage tourism, the exploration of the internal culture of intangible cultural heritage should be given importance to highlight the unique cultural value and cultural identity of intangible cultural heritage. By enhancing tourists’ cultural identification with intangible cultural heritage, we can continuously improve their attitude toward intangible cultural heritage and deepen the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on tourists, thereby stimulating tourists’ behavioral intention to travel and consume.
- (2)
Influence mechanism of behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on consumption intentions
Behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control all have a significant impact on consumption intention. Behavioral attitude has a significant positive effect on consumers’ consumption intention of Kunqu Opera (
,
); thus, H5 is established. This result is consistent with Ajzen’s main assumptions on TPB [
29]. Behavioral attitude is an important influencing factor of consumer behavior intention. Previous studies have yielded similar results [
60,
61,
73]. When tourists think that the experience of Suzhou Kunqu Opera is pleasant and valuable, they are more inclined toward consumer behavior. The study also showed that behavioral attitude was the most influential factor among the three. Subjective norms have a significant positive impact on consumption intention (
,
); thus, H6 is established, confirming the TPB hypothesis. Numerous studies have demonstrated the important role of subjective norms in behavioral intentions [
74,
75]. Tourists tend to consider other people’s views when making intangible cultural heritage consumption decisions such as friends, relatives, parents, and travel companions. Higher subjective norms have a positive effect on tourists’ consumption intentions. Perceived behavioral control has a significant positive effect on consumption intention (
,
); thus, H7 is established. This result confirms the views of Brown et al. [
76], and Chen and Tung [
77]. When tourists think that they have enough time, money, and opportunity to easily consume intangible cultural heritage, they carry out this behavior. This result also enlightens managers in creating various opportunities in tourist destinations to enable visitors to understand and participate in intangible cultural heritage tourism.
6. Conclusions and Implications
6.1. Conclusions
Taking Suzhou Kunqu Opera as an example, this study selected cultural identity as the antecedent variable and combined it with the TPB in consumer behavior to explore the impact of cultural identity on the tourism consumption intention of intangible cultural heritage. Due to the special cultural attributes of intangible cultural heritage, tourists can ultimately promote their consumption intention on the basis of recognizing the value of intangible cultural heritage. Based on the traditional TPB, this study creatively introduced the variable of cultural identity and conducted empirical research.
The results showed the following: (1) Cultural identity has a direct positive influence on the consumption intention of intangible cultural heritage. In intangible cultural heritage tourism, the cultural identity of tourist consumers promotes their consumption intention. (2) A positive correlation exists between cultural identity and behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. When the cultural identity is strengthened, the individual’s behavioral attitude is more positive, the influence of subjective norms is more intense, and the perceived behavioral control is stronger. (3) Behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control all have a positive impact on tourists’ consumption intentions. The empirical results support the theoretical model and hypothesis.
6.2. Managerial Implications
The results of the study provide valuable information that can be used as a reference for the development of intangible cultural heritage tourist destinations. Tourism organizations in these destinations should realize that intangible cultural heritage is a unique tourism resource that can generate economic benefits for tourism development. The sustainable development of tourism is the focus of public attention. The tourism industry is developed by using cultural resources, and nonrenewable original ecological cultural resources are the basis and premise of its development and utilization. In the fierce tourism competition, intangible cultural heritage can be developed and utilized as a type of tourism product that emphasizes differences and highlights local characteristics [
10]. On the one hand, sustainable tourism development can effectively inherit and develop intangible cultural heritage. Only when the original cultural ecology of the region and the nation is effectively protected can we discuss the sustainable utilization of its cultural resources, which meets the needs of the current population while also protecting the needs of future generations; on the other hand, sustainable tourism development can strengthen the unique cultural image of tourist destinations, attract visitors, and promote the long-term development of these destinations.
Heritage tourism brings sustainable development opportunities for destinations, especially in the post-COVID-19 epidemic era. COVID-19 has a long-term negative impact on the tourism industry, and brings a rethinking of the tourism growth model [
78]. Tourism recovery will take a long time, and stakeholders should actively formulate strategic plans for destination recovery and seize the crisis into development opportunities [
79,
80]. This study provides management suggestions for the sustainable development of heritage tourism destinations from the perspective of stakeholders (
Table 6).
Destination governments and decision makers should intervene appropriately in heritage tourism and introduce relevant tourism policies to promote its sustainability. In addition, the governments should increase their support to the tourism industry and enterprises by providing stimulus plans and interventions, such as tax breaks, subsidies, and deferred repayment [
73]. These measures can improve the viability of tourism companies to some extent.
Tourism enterprises should establish a link between tourists’ cultural identity and consumption intentions in intangible cultural heritage tourism. The staff can search for tourists’ travel stories from online travel communities or travel review websites, evaluate the degree of tourists’ recognition of intangible cultural heritage, and obtain the true evaluation of tourists. Tourists’ pursuit of deep cultural tourism experience promotes the transformation of the supply side [
81]. An in-depth understanding of tourists’ needs can provide a reference for the development of tourism products, help tourism providers design travel experiences to meet the needs of tourists [
82], and increase tourists’ sense of participation and identification with intangible cultural heritage. The core product of Suzhou Kunqu Opera is stage performance, the exposure of which can be increased in collaboration with scenic spots. For example, tourism organizations can build theatres with unique architectural styles in scenic spots, and regularly provide theater performances to show tourists the stage art and charm of Suzhou Kunqu Opera. Visitors can enhance their value and cultural recognition of this performing art by watching Suzhou Kunqu Opera performances. The design and development of tourist souvenirs based on stage art and dress adornment has attracted tourists’ attention. The aforementioned measures can improve cultural identity and promote tourists’ consumption intention to the greatest extent, so that the goal of sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage tourism can be achieved.
The marketing and promotion of destination intangible cultural heritage needs to focus on the role of TPB. The results of this study show that behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control all have a positive effect on tourists’ consumption intentions. Destination marketing organizations should attach importance to the contents and forms of tourism promotion of intangible cultural heritage. Social media can influence consumers’ decision-making and purchasing behavior [
83]. Mass media should focus on publicizing the characteristics and values of intangible cultural heritage to attract potential tourist consumers. Tourist destination managers can organize cultural activities to enhance tourists’ understanding of the intrinsic value of intangible cultural heritage. In addition, the interaction between tourists and local residents, especially Kunqu Opera enthusiasts, helps tourists to deeply participate in intangible cultural heritage tourism. Destinations can attract tourists to participate and produce a more memorable travel experience by increasing the interaction between tourists, local residents, and staff in public spaces [
84], which in turn stimulates potential consumption intentions. In addition, destination marketing organizations can stimulate consumer demand through price discount strategies.
6.3. Limitations and Future Research
This study can fill research gaps in intangible cultural heritage tourism and provide suggestions for the marketing and sustainable development of tourist destinations. However, this study has several limitations. First, the relatively small sample size may limit the generality of the results. Although the number of questionnaires has grown 10 times that of the traditional concept of items to calculate the sample size, future research can still expand the sample size and conduct further investigation under different circumstances. Second, the cultural identity scale has not been developed, and follow-up research can be conducted based on the characteristics of intangible cultural heritage to improve the research accuracy. Finally, this study’s participants are aimed at Chinese tourists, and does not include a cross-cultural analysis of tourists to consider differences in the influence of cultural identity on consumption intentions between local and foreign cultural tourists; that is, to explore whether the relationship between these constructs will present different results due to tourism market segmentation.