Exploring Experiential Authenticity and Engagement Pattern in Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)-based Sustainable Tourism: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

Intangible cultural legacy propagates through behaviours, expressions, knowledge, and abilities that communities and individuals identify as being a part of their cultural heritage, which have been handed down through the centuries and are constantly recreated. Related items and cultural locations are also included in these components. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has recently emerged as a crucial aspect of the tourism business in many countries that are origin to these kind of cultural resources. Visitors are motivated to visit and revisit the sites for various psychological, cultural and environmental reasons. Tourism, in particular, is fundamentally a market for engagements and experiences, with travelers floating the “mental spaces” where the experiences are captured. The visitors’ engagement pattern, quality of the experiences both are directly related to visitors’ active involvement during travel and satisfaction, which in turn induces behavioural consequences. Local knowledge and practices concerning culture and heritage can contribute to the research on environmental sustainability and often provide a crucial foundation for community-based resilience to natural disasters and climatic change. ICH practices were found to be critical for sustainable livelihoods for groups and communities. This study takes a qualitative route to assess the engagement pattern of tourists while interacting with the traditional form of Chhau Dance of Purulia, West Bengal, an ICH identified by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. The results of the phenomenological study allowed us to intellectualize the magnitudes of experiential quality and also establish categorical causality with the engagement pattern & behavioral pattern of the visitors. Further studies can be conducted for objective validation of the dimensions and causality.

Keywords: Experiential Authenticity, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Engagement Pattern, Sustainability, Qualitative, Phenomenological

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