---
title: "How ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity shape tourists’ willingness to support intan"
id: "plos-one-0-ritualized-experiences-and-perceived-authenticity-in-shaping-tourists"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-0-ritualized-experiences-and-perceived-authenticity-in-shaping-tourists"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "General"
source_name: "PLOS ONE (Medicine)"
source_url: "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358987"
published_at: "2026-09-21T14:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Journal Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# How ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity shape tourists’ willingness to support intan
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-0-ritualized-experiences-and-perceived-authenticity-in-shaping-tourists
- **Specialty:** [General](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/general.md)
- **Primary Source:** PLOS ONE (Medicine)
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0358987)
- **Published At:** 2026-09-21T14:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Journal Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- This study examined how **ritualized experiences** and **perceived authenticity** relate to tourists’ **willingness to support ICH inheritance** using Gansu Shehuo as an empirical context. The sample comprised 390 valid questionnaires. - Ritualized experience was operationalized into four dimensions: **uniqueness**, **commitment**, **ceremoniality**, and **non-functionality**. Perceived authenticity comprised **objective authenticity**, **constructive authenticity**, and **existential authenticity**. - Structural equation modeling found positive and significant associations between **uniqueness**, **ceremoniality**, **non-functionality**, **objective authenticity**, and **existential authenticity** with willingness to support ICH inheritance. **Commitment** and **constructive authenticity** did not show significant direct effects. - Necessity analysis indicated that no single antecedent condition was necessary for either high or low willingness to support ICH inheritance. - Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) identified six distinct configurations (pathways) associated with high willingness and one configuration associated with low willingness, illustrating **equifinality** and **causal asymmetry**. - The authors argue that coordinated development across ritual distinctiveness, symbolic order, historical credibility, and lived authenticity better supports sustainable ICH revitalization than isolated experiential enhancements. - The study combined SEM and fsQCA to capture both net effects of individual dimensions and alternative configurational pathways, advancing understanding of experience-based mechanisms that link tourism encounters to cultural sustainability. - Data underlying the study are available in Figshare, and the research was funded by the Gansu Provincial Department of Science and Technology (Grant No.24YFGA047).
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity in shaping tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage inheritance | PLOS One Browse Subject Areas ? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here . Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Peer Review Reader Comments Figures Figures Abstract Intangible cultural heritage tourism plays an important role in cultural sustainability, yet how tourists’ experiential perceptions are associated with their willingness to support ICH inheritance remains insufficiently understood. Taking Gansu Shehuo, a representative form of Chinese folk intangible cultural heritage, as the empirical context, this study investigates how ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity are associated with tourists’willingness to support ICH inheritance.Based on 390 valid questionnaires, the study further explores both the independent effects and configurational pathways underlying tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance.The results show that uniqueness, ceremoniality, non-functionality, objective authenticity, and existential authenticity are significantly and positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance, whereas commitment and constructive authenticity have no significant direct effects. The necessity analysis indicates that no single antecedent condition is necessary for either high or low willingness. The configurational analysis further identifies six configurations leading to high willingness and one configuration leading to low willingness, demonstrating equifinality and causal asymmetry. The findings suggest that sustainable ICH revitalization may benefit from the coordinated development of ritual distinctiveness, symbolic order, historical credibility, and lived authenticity rather than from isolated experiential attributes. Citation: Liang W, Song H (2026) Ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity in shaping tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage inheritance. PLoS One 21(9): e0358987. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0358987 Editor: Bo Pu, Sichuan Agricultural University, CHINA Received: June 5, 2026; Accepted: September 8, 2026; Published: September 21, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Liang, Song. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: The anonymized dataset underlying the findings of this study is available in Figshare via https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.33150737 . Funding: WB L Grant No.24YFGA047 Gansu Provincial Department of Science and Technology https://kjt.gansu.gov.cn/ . The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: NO authors have competing interests. 1 Introduction Heritage tourism provides an important context for understanding how cultural resources contribute to preservation, identity formation, and sustainable development [ 1 – 4 ]. Tourists are no longer regarded solely as passive consumers of heritage, because their interpretation, communication, and post-visit behaviour can influence the circulation and continuation of cultural meanings [ 5 ]. This role is particularly relevant to intangible cultural heritage, whose continuity depends on living practice, performance, participation, and interaction as well as institutional and community protection. Following Ruan et al. [ 6 ], the construct of tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance was adapted to the context of intangible cultural heritage tourism. In the present study, tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance refers to tourists’ intention to contribute to the continuity of ICH through cultural communication, continued attention, participation in inheritance-related activities, and the contribution of time or financial resources. It does not imply that tourists replace local communities or heritage bearers, nor does it denote the actual mastery and intergenerational transmission of heritage knowledge or skills. Rather, it reflects the complementary role that tourists may play in supporting ICH continuity. In heritage tourism, tourists construct cultural meanings through interpretation, interaction, emotional engagement, and connections between heritage and personal identity [ 7 – 9 ]. Consequently, their willingness to support intangible cultural heritage cannot be explained solely by the visible content or entertainment value of heritage activities, but must also be understood through the symbolic and emotional meanings generated during the experience. Despite the growing recognition of tourists’ supportive role, the experiential mechanisms through which intangible cultural heritage tourism supports cultural continuity remain insufficiently explained. Authenticity is widely recognized as a central but multidimensional and context-dependent concept in heritage tourism [ 10 , 11 ], while less is known about how ritualized experiences communicate cultural distinctiveness, symbolic order, and transmission value in living heritage settings [ 12 – 14 ]. Ritualized experiences describe how cultural meanings are enacted through distinctive procedures, symbolic order, bodily participation, and non-utilitarian practices [ 15 ], whereas perceived authenticity reflects how tourists evaluate the historical credibility, socially constructed meaning, and lived genuineness of these encounters [ 16 , 17 ]. Integrating these constructs can therefore connect the performative organization of intangible cultural heritage experiences with tourists’ cognitive and emotional interpretations of heritage meanings. Although ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity are conceptually distinct, they may also be theoretically related. Ritualized procedures, symbolic order, and culturally distinctive performances may provide experiential cues through which tourists form judgments of authenticity. However, the present study does not assume a fixed causal ordering between these constructs. Instead, it treats them as complementary experiential domains and examines their differentiated net associations and configurational combinations in relation to tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. However, limited attention has been paid to how ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity jointly shape tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Existing integrative studies have mainly examined market-oriented outcomes, such as visit intention, satisfaction, and destination image, and have often treated experiential antecedents as broad aggregate constructs rather than as differentiated dimensions [ 18 ]. Accordingly, a more experience-based and sustainability-oriented perspective is needed to examine how ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity, both independently and configurationally, shape culturally oriented behavioural outcomes in ICH tourism. Against this background, Gansu Shehuo provides a suitable empirical context for examining the relationship between ICH tourism experiences and heritage transmission. As a representative form of Chinese folk ICH, Gansu Shehuo combines local distinctiveness, ritualized performance, collective participation, and symbolic expression. It integrates ritual procedures, folk performance, local cultural symbols, and community interaction, thereby enabling tourists to perceive both ritual distinctiveness and authenticity [ 19 ]. These characteristics make Gansu Shehuo an appropriate setting for exploring how tourists’ experiential perceptions are translated into their willingness to support intangible cultural heritage, a culturally oriented behavioural outcome closely related to sustainable ICH transmission [ 6 ]. Building on the above discussion, this study uses Gansu Shehuo as a representative folklore-based ICH tourism context to examine the associations of ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Specifically, this study has four objectives: first, to examine the dimensions of ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity in folk ICH tourism and assess their net associations with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance; second, to determine whether any of these dimensions constitute necessary conditions for this willingness; third, to uncover the configurational pathways associated with high willingness; and fourth, to combine necessity analysis with fsQCA to explain asymmetric configurational relationships between antecedent conditions and culturally oriented behavioral outcomes.By addressing these objectives, this study advances existing research in three respects. First, it integrates ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity as complementary mechanisms linking the performative presentation of living heritage with tourists’ interpretation of its credibility and meaning. Second, it extends the outcome domain of heritage tourism research from conventional market-oriented responses to tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance, thereby establishing a more direct connection between tourism experience and cultural sustainability. Third, by combining SEM and fsQCA, it explains both the differentiated net effects of individual experiential dimensions and the alternative configurations through which ritualized and authentic experiences jointly generate heritage-supportive intentions [ 20 , 21 ]. 2 Literature review and hypotheses development 2.1 Ritualized experiences and tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance The essence of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) tourism lies not merely in the display of cultural content, but also in whether tourists can develop symbolic perception, procedural awareness, and emotional engagement that distinguish the experience from everyday life [ 9 ]. Compared with general sightseeing, ICH tourism relies more heavily on live performance, contextual staging, and on-site interaction to communicate cultural meanings and support the sustainable transmission of living traditions. In this regard, ritualized experiences provide an important lens through which to understand how tourists perceive, interpret, and evaluate ICH tourism [ 22 ]. Existing research suggests that ritualized experiences in ICH tourism are multidimensional, primarily encompassing uniqueness, commitment, ceremoniality, and non-functionality, and that these dimensions jointly shape tourists’ understanding and appreciation of heritage culture [ 19 ]. Moreover, ritualized experiences are not generated by the activity itself alone, but are co-constructed by organizers, performers, local communities, and tourists, and are reflected in the atmosphere of the setting, local symbols, bodily participation, and interactive relations [ 8 ]. From a broader ICH and cultural sustainability perspective, tourists’ perceptions of cultural distinctiveness, symbolic order, and cultural significance may further influence their support for, engagement with, and willingness to support intangible cultural heritage [ 23 – 25 ]. Ritualized experiences may influence not only whether tourists participate in ICH activities, but also how they interpret cultural meanings and whether they are willing to support cultural continuity. Prior research has shown that interactivity, immersion, and emotional involvement in on-site experiences can enhance tourists’ memorable experiences and behavioural responses, while narrative contexts, self-congruity, cultural labels, and local cultural atmospheres can further shape cultural identity, purchase intention, and other post-experience outcomes [ 26 – 28 ]. Research on destination attachment and place identity likewise suggests that the emotional and cognitive bonds formed in tourism settings often provide an important basis for tourists’ subsequent support, communication, and transmission-related behaviours [ 29 ]. In the context of folklore-based ICH tourism, uniqueness enables tourists to recognise that the experience differs from ordinary festive events and routine sightseeing [ 30 ]; commitment strengthens psychological and behavioural investment; ceremoniality highlights symbolic order and ritual atmosphere [ 31 ]; and non-functionality helps tourists perceive cultural significance beyond entertainment and consumption. It can therefore be expected that stronger ritualized experiences are associated with a higher willingness to support ICH inheritance. Based on the above discussion, ritualized experiences in folklore-based ICH tourism can be conceptualised as a multidimensional construct comprising uniqueness, commitment, ceremoniality, and non-functionality. As these dimensions shape tourists’ perceptions of cultural distinctiveness, symbolic order, and cultural significance,they are expected to be positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed. Hypothesis (H1a): Uniqueness is positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Hypothesis (H1b): Commitment is positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Hypothesis (H1c): Ceremoniality is positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Hypothesis (H1d): Non-functionality is positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. 2.2 Perceived authenticity and tourists’ willingness to support culture Perceived authenticity has long been regarded as one of the most central and debated concepts in heritage tourism research [ 32 ]. In heritage and ICH tourism, authenticity matters not only because it shapes tourists’ evaluations of heritage resources, but also because it provides an important basis for understanding how visitors interpret cultural meanings and develop subsequent attitudes and behavioral responses [ 33 ]. Existing studies generally conceptualize perceived authenticity as a multidimensional construct, rather than a single static attribute. In particular, Wang argues that authenticity in tourism should not be understood solely in relation to objects, but also in relation to socially constructed meanings and tourists’ lived experiences [ 34 ]. Building on this perspective, perceived authenticity is commonly discussed in terms of objective authenticity, constructive authenticity, and existential authenticity [ 35 , 36 ]. This perspective is especially relevant to ICH tourism, where tourists encounter not merely static heritage objects, but living cultural practices involving performances, narratives, skills, rituals, heritage bearers, and local atmospheres [ 37 ]. In such contexts, perceived authenticity becomes a key lens through which tourists judge whether a cultural experience is credible, meaningful, and worthy of continued attention and support for sustainable transmission [ 38 ]. The three dimensions of perceived authenticity may operate through different mechanisms in shaping tourists’ responses to heritage and ICH experiences. Objective authenticity primarily concerns tourists’ perceptions of the historical basis, traditional style, and cultural credibility of heritage expressions, thereby strengthening their trust in the heritage resource itself [ 39 ]. Constructive authenticity, by contrast, is more closely associated with tourists’ recognition of staged settings, interpretive narratives, and symbolic representations, through which cultural meanings are socially negotiated and experienced. Existential authenticity places greater emphasis on tourists’ sense of presence, self-realization, and emotional resonance during the experience. Prior studies have shown that these dimensions do not contribute equally to post-visit outcomes [ 40 ]. Objective authenticity often reinforces tourists’ evaluations of cultural value and destination credibility, whereas existential authenticity is more directly associated with emotional attachment, loyalty, and behavioral tendencies [ 41 – 43 ]. Meanwhile, authenticity may also influence tourist outcomes indirectly through experience quality, involvement, nostalgia, and satisfaction [ 44 – 47 ]. Taken together, these findings suggest that, in ICH tourism, different dimensions of perceived authenticity are likely to show differentiated associations with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Recent studies have shown that authenticity is related not only to traditional outcomes such as satisfaction, loyalty, and visit intention, but also to higher-order heritage-oriented outcomes, including heritage responsibility, place attachment, and long-term support for heritage sites [ 48 – 50 ]. This line of research is further supported by evidence showing that destination authenticity can reinforce place attachment and loyalty in heritage-related tourism settings [ 51 ]. This suggests that, in ICH tourism, perceived authenticity may function as an important mechanism through which tourists develop deeper emotional, moral, and behavioral connections with heritage [ 52 ]. When tourists are able to recognize the historical credibility and cultural value of ICH expressions while also experiencing a strong sense of presence and resonance, they may be more likely to regard such culture as worthy of understanding, supporting, and passing on. Accordingly, perceived authenticity is likely to play an important role in shaping tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage, thereby contributing to sustainable ICH transmission. Based on the above discussion, perceived authenticity in ICH tourism can be understood as a multidimensional construct comprising objective authenticity, constructive authenticity, and existential authenticity. As these dimensions reflect tourists’ evaluations of cultural credibility, symbolic meaning, and lived experience, they are expected to positively influence tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage. Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed. Hypothesis (H2a): Objective authenticity is positively associated with tourists’ willingness to support ICH inheritance. Hypothesis (H2b): Constructive authenticity is positively associated with tourists’willingness to support ICH inheritance. Hypothesis (H2c): Existential authenticity is positively associated with tourists’willingness to support ICH inheritance. 2.3 Complexity theory, ritualized experiences, and perceived authenticity Higher-order outcomes in heritage and ICH tourism are rarely associated with a single antecedent condition alone. Instead, they are more likely to be associated with combinations of experiential, cognitive, and emotional factors.Existing research suggests that outcomes such as experience quality, satisfaction, destination loyalty, place attachment, and supportive behaviour are often shaped by combinations of antecedent conditions rather than by isolated effects [ 19 , 53 – 55 ]. From the perspective of complexity theory, antecedent conditions may be complementary, substitutable, and context-dependent, and high and low outcomes should not be assumed to mirror one another [ 20 ]. Therefore, relying solely on symmetric approaches may overlook important combinations of conditions that contribute to tourists’ willingness to support intangible cultural heritage. This configurational perspective is particularly relevant to ICH tourism, where ritualized experiences and perceived authenticity are inherently intertwined. Ritualized experiences highlight cultural distinctiveness, symbolic order, and non-utilitarian meaning, whereas perceived authenticity shapes tourists’ judgements of cultural credibility, emotional resonance, and experiential value. In such contexts, high willin
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