Culture heritage street and heritage brand tourism: case study of Beijing dashilar culture heritage street

Abstract

Purpose: Derived from the corporate heritage brand theory, this research studies Beijing Dashilar Culture Heritage Street – one of the most famous culture streets in China. It intellectualises and addresses the crucial elements of corporate culture heritage street brand identity such as architecture and design, tourist convenience and traditional goods and services, which is supporting heritage brand identity theory by confirming the effect of key traits: symbol, design and style as well as product or service focus. Moreover, it proves the effect of corporate heritage brand experience of Dashilar visitors by which corporate culture heritage street brand identity towards to overall tourism satisfaction. This study also investigates the relationship between corporate culture heritage street brand identity and tourism satisfaction. Finally, it creatively establishes the moderating elements in these relationships, which are psychological cognitive awareness of history and culture. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual research framework of corporate culture heritage street brand identity is developed from the literature review and pilot research analysis of secondary comments from well-known online platform TripAdvisor. Further semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with volunteered participants who have actual Dashilar visiting experience for the research validity enhancement and questionnaire design. The main research method approach of this study is quantitative questionnaire survey which is adapted to examine the conceptual framework. To assuring the authenticity of this study, the the paper-based questionnaire survey was accomplished in Dashilar area in Beijing, China. In total, 654 questionnaires were collected, among which 609 valid questionnaires were used to test the hypotheses of this study. Findings: The data analysis results confirm the significant role of heritage brand identity on achieving and maintaining tourism satisfaction of a culture heritage street in China. This study finds that dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity such as symbol, design and style as well as product or services focus are actively empowering the corporate heritage brand identity. Additionally, this research reveals that corporate heritage street brand identity dimensions influence corporate heritage brand experience positively. Finally, history and culture awareness are essential to strengthen the relationship between culture heritage street brand identity and heritage brand experience, while positive heritage brand experience is the key to enhance tourism satisfaction. Originality/value: This is one of pioneer studies that researches on corporate heritage brand and tourism interdisciplinary with unique perspective considering culture heritage street as a corporate heritage brand. This is one of few groundbreaking studies advances the corporate heritage brand identity theory with a conceptual framework, which confirms the corporate heritage brand identity dimensions and their effects on heritage brand experience and tourism satisfaction. This study, additionally, clarified the moderation effect of psychological cognitive awareness (history and culture) and physical heritage band identity dimensions on the relationship between culture heritage street brand identity and heritage brand experience as well as tourism satisfaction. Managerial implications: The study acknowledged culture heritage street tourism potential for its sustainable development, which broadens the strategic vision of culture heritage management public institutions or enterprises. Moreover, illuminated culture heritage street brand identity dimensions in this study provide the further improvement directions (such as the use of symbol, design and style uniqueness development or authentic product and service orientation) for management strategy on achieving and maintaining the tourism satisfaction through brand experience development. The significance of history and culture awareness of culture heritage streets plays an important strategic role during the marketing communication and brand development of these streets with culture heritage.