Economic Attitude towards Energy

Residents can clearly recognize the problems that exist in their villages that require change because of tourism promotion. Twenty-three out of 26 respondents in the interviews mentioned issues that were related to the development of tourism that had occurred, such as excessive consumption of gas for tourist restaurants and excessive household water waste; the excessive use of electricity in their hostel, particularly during the tourist golden week where the village had even experienced power cuts due to the overload of electricity consumption, excess littering of non-biodegradable waste brought by tourists, and lack of road lights in the village, which made it difficult to consume and move around at night. In addition, they can actively seek ways to change, which is important in making decisions to change energy use. For example, when residents realize that the arrival of tourists brings high electricity bills along with economic income, they actively consider whether there are possibilities to reduce their electricity bills and find new energy sources. Water use is a concern for residents in terms of sewage and waste disposal. Concerning the use of water, residents are more sensitive to the disposal of sewage and waste because of the need for clean water for the terraces, the core landscape resource of the area, and the need to maintain the environmental cleanliness of the area. When 15 out of 26 respondents recalled that there was an unpleasant smell resulting from excessive hotel water waste, they mentioned the attitude and sense of responsibility of the scenic residents who took the initiative to push for a solution when faced with the problem. For example, S24 mentioned,

*"We asked the government and developer for a long time, hoping to build a sewage treatment station* ... *we also take turns to do cleaning for the whole village... and rubbish is transported out daily from the village. It cannot be left in the village because it is not good for the soil and water; it affects the terraces."*

Residents are also more aware of the environmental impact of excessive waste disposal and actively address this issue. The positive attitudes of residents towards energy are often more based on awareness of the need for sustainable tourism and more economical energy consumption and less on attitudes towards energy conservation.

Positive Energy Behavior

Residents of the village take positive actions in their energy use to solve the problems mentioned earlier, thus saving and conserving energy. Firstly, new energy sources are used; for example, the widespread use of air heaters is associated with new energy technologies by residents who operate hotels, which largely reduces the cost of electricity. As resident S01 described:

*"Compared to electric water heaters, air energy water heaters are more energy efficient; air energy heaters compress air to generate heat. In terms of price, electric water heaters demand more power, reaching three to four thousand watts; if the wattage is too high, the circuit cannot withstand it, and fire safety hazards are also present. However, the wattage of air energy is not very high, it is up to more than thousand watts. Using an electric water heater is equivalent to two or three air energies, and the capacity of air energy is much more affordable than the electric water heater."*

The descriptions from the residents further confirm that they are more concerned about energy costs and willing to use new energy products and technologies in their tourism services. With the use of new energy sources, residents have also influenced each other to form a culture of energy conservation, such as the popularity of air energy use in the village. In addition, streetlamps using solar electric panels in scenic areas have solved the problem of lighting streetlamps at night, and villagers have used environmentally friendly oil instead of gas for cooking, reducing gas consumption.

From a water perspective, the village needs to tackle sewage and maintain clean water sources. In terms of sewage disposal, the entire village is built on a unified sewage pipe, which has centralized the treatment. At present, the water in small ditches in the villages is clean after sewage treatment.

Another requiring attention from the data shows that five large cisterns were established for successive classification at the top of the hill for living, terrace irrigation, agricultural production, and fire safety use, as shown in Figure 3. Meanwhile, to prevent fires in wooden houses, the village has built fire hydrants in front of each house, which is connected to the pipes of the cisterns used for fire safety. Finally, during tourism activities, residents are also willing to influence tourists to behave in an energy-saving manner, such as in the use of air conditioning in rooms, raising the temperature to the most energyefficient level in obvious places, and remembering to turn off lights and air conditioning when going out.

**Figure 3.** One of the Cistern and Sewage Treatment Centres in Ping'an (Source: by author 1).
