Traditional Villages’ Cultural Tourism Spatial Quality Evaluation

Abstract

In recent years, traditional villages have vigorously developed as a phenomenon of the cultural tourism industry. In order to cope with the rapid development of the industry and changes in market demand, cultural tourism spaces urgently need to improve in quality, highlight cultural characteristics, and enhance cultural expressions. In the current tourism evaluation system, although it covers many dimensions such as environmental evaluation, sustainability evaluation, farmers’ participation, and adaptability evaluation, there is relatively little evaluation of the key element of spatial quality. Based on scene theory, this paper establishes a traditional village cultural tourism space quality evaluation system with the three main dimensions of authenticity, theatricality, and legitimacy, and fifteen sub-dimensions by drawing on the relevant theories of cultural tourism space evaluation. Then, the evaluation system is applied to three traditional villages in the suburbs of Beijing, China, for practice and verification. The study concludes that the authenticity of traditional villages is the core source of competitiveness of the cultural tourism industry; the excavation of non-heritage values should be strengthened; the spatial theatricality should be innovatively designed and planned to enhance the cultural experience; and legitimacy needs to be combined with renovation and operation to establish a mechanism for consultation and promote sustainable development. This paper hopes to enhance the scene benefit of traditional village cultural tourism spaces through the scene-theory-oriented space quality evaluation system, and deepen the understanding of rural space so as to provide relevant designers with more comprehensive design ideas to guide actual rural cultural tourism space design. At the same time, this article puts forward proposals such as strengthening the protection of intangible cultural heritage, innovating spatial experiences, and building a mechanism for consultation. The purpose is to accurately guide the optimisation of traditional village cultural tourism spaces, promote the improvement in spatial quality and the sustainable development of the cultural tourism industry, and contribute to rural revitalisation and cultural heritage.