Tourists’ Perceived Restoration of Chinese Rural Cultural Memory Space

Abstract

In the face of the growing demand for stress reduction among urban residents, research on the restorative effect of cultural environments and cultural landscape is currently limited. This paper aims to explore the perceived restoration of rural cultural memory space in a Chinese cultural context and to investigate the role of situational involvement and place attachment in this respect. The results show that rural cultural memory space can directly produce restorative effects, but each perceptual dimension has internal variability. According to appraisal theory and self-regulation theory, revealing the complex pathways of tourists’ perceptions of rural cultural memory space can be generated through a process of situational involvement and placing attachment to produce tourists’ restorative perceptions. The research results highlight the predictors of restorative environment in the context of the Chinese vernacular culture and provide references for rural tourism landscape design.