Visitors’ Gaze on the Local Living Culture of a Historical District: its Perceptual and Behavioral Aspects

A historical district as a tourism destination encompasses various aspects, including ones as heritage, as an attraction for visitors, and as a living place for the locals. For investigations of visitors’ gaze on aspects that depict lives of the locals in such a district, this study aims to present some of the theoretical backgrounds and the outlines of the potential methods. This study, which is the first step of a long-term investigation, discusses the nature of the local living culture of a historical district and proposes the use of techniques to obtain verbal responses related to visitors’ perceptions, to capture objects of their focus as projected in photographs, and to record the traits of their behaviors. The difference in visitors’ levels of previous visits is also considered as a variable that may affect their perceptions of the local living culture and the manners in which they interact with it