On Life Cycle of Cultural Heritage Engineering Tourism: A Case Study of Macau

AbstractRecognized as one of the most influential and instrumental contributions by geographers to tourism studies, the Tourism Area Life Cycle model has long been subject to continuous application and modification, and meanwhile, cultural heritage tourism, especially the sustainability issue of it, has been increasingly drawing attention from researchers. Proceeding from the argument that not only is the TALC model a conceptual and managerial framework to be employed in tourist destinations, but it is also applicable to research of tourism products, this paper performed an empirical study on the life cycle of cultural heritage tourism with the study area of Macau, by means of such methods as literature study, field survey and in-depth interview. The affecting factors were identified and classified into categories of supply side and demand side, both of which were examined in detail. It was argued that distinctions of cultural heritage tourism lie in that the primary issues concerned are preservation and maintenance, rather than physical exploitation of the heritage resources, so the constructions normally concentrate on supporting facilities and creation of atmosphere in the destination, and that the combined factors of heritage value and government support often reduce the possibility of real decline. The life cycle of cultural heritage tourism was divided into four stages, namely, introduction, growth, maturity and consolidation, with characteristics and relevant strategies of each stage summarized. Accordingly, the evolution of cultural heritage tourism of Macau was illustrated, with its current status concluded at the beginning of maturity stage. In accordance with these findings, a series of development recommendations were proposed to enhance its sustainability, including to strengthen conservation efforts, to diversify marketing approaches through tourism engineering techniques, to deliver personalized service to tourists, and to rationalize the design of itineraries, and finally, discussion, as well as conclusion, was also presented to enlighten future research