Conducting Heritage Tourism-Led Urban Renewal in Chinese Historical and Cultural Urban Spaces: A Case Study of Datong

Abstract

Heritage tourism-led urban renewal and regeneration has recently become a critical way of creating a city brand, designing tourism destinations, and attracting property developers and investors to cities. However, current practice points to a lack of proper understanding and consideration in preserving and interpreting elements of authentic identity in the Chinese historic urban landscape. In this study, we used the ancient city of Datong, China, under urban regeneration as a case study to explore how urban history and cultural resources are manifested in preserving and reconstructing historic urban landscapes. The methods included in-depth interviews with multiple stakeholders and groups, integrated with the analysis of planning documents and field observations. By categorising and evaluating the research data, we developed a new conceptual framework with applicable measures, contributing to heritage-tourism urban regeneration and shaping place identity in both theoretical and practical aspects. The conceptual framework and its corresponding concepts and measures developed from this research could provide guidelines for academics and practitioners to explore more potential aspects and concepts that focus on the research and development of Chinese cities with historic urban landscapes.

Effects of tourism resource search on folk sports project development fuzzy front-end performance: The moderating role of environmental dynamics change

“…In this study, tourism resources are categorized into internal and external tourism resources. Internal tourism resources include some localized elements of the folk sports enterprise, such as local characteristics, intangible cultural heritage, and historical sites of the location of the folk sports enterprise [ 62 ], while external tourism resources include resources from scientific research institutes, universities, and cooperating customer groups in the location of the sports enterprise. The internal tourism resource search is more concentrated on developing folk sports projects [ 63 ].…”

Trends and Future Directions in Research on the Protection of Traditional Village Cultural Heritage in Urban Renewal

“…Figure 6 illustrates the different clusters of literature, with a total of seven distinct research themes identified. The clustering of literature themes was ranked based on the citation frequency of the most cited articles in each cluster [78]. The top two clusters are as follows: Cluster #7, with characteristic keywords such as sustainable development, urban renewal, urban regeneration, and cultural heritage.…”

“…Figure 6 illustrates the different clusters of literature, with a total of seven distinct research themes identified. The clustering of literature themes was ranked based on the citation frequency of the most cited articles in each cluster [78] The analysis suggests that the preservation of traditional village cultural heritage in urban renewal is an evolving concept. Co-citation analysis assists experts and scholars in identifying highly cited and influential research articles while also offering insights into the fundamental knowledge of research areas such as sustainable development, urban renewal, urban regeneration, and cultural heritage [79].…”

“…GIS technology plays a key role in planning and conserving traditional village cultural heritage by analyzing and visualizing geographic information [96]. Research encompassed heritage regeneration, sustainable urban renewal, and culture-led renewal, offering both theoretical and practical insights for urban sustainable development [78]. Special attention was given to historic core areas to promote sustainable development and cultural inheritance through protection, enhancement, and regeneration strategies [97].…”

Urban Regeneration and Touristification in the Sardinian Capital City of Cagliari, Italy

“…By analyzing the relationships between urban regeneration and tourism, Judd and Fainstein [4] noticed the tendency to create "tourism bubbles" where a high number of tourist attractions are crowded together. This is particularly evident in historic city centers, where the high concentration of heritage and cultural elements [5] as well as a large part of the retail and accommodation business [6] promotes urban vitality and preserves the city's authenticity [7].…”