Tourism Geographies

An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment

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Understanding the core attractiveness of

performing arts heritage to international tourists

Man-U Io

To cite this article: Man-U Io (2019): Understanding the core attractiveness of performing arts
heritage to international tourists, Tourism Geographies, DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2019.1571096

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1571096

Published online: 07 Feb 2019.

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TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1571096

Understanding the core attractiveness of performing arts

heritage to international tourists
Man-U Io
Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao SAR, China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Similar to tangible cultural heritage, traditional performing arts as Received 27 April 2018
intangible cultural heritage of humanity are valuable resources for Accepted 26 December 2018
the development of heritage tourism of a destination. However,
there is very little research done in this area, leaving a blurred KEYWORDS
understanding of how to commodify and promote traditional per- Performing arts heritage;
Cantonese opera; intrinsic
forming arts as a heritage product. A good knowledge of per- and experiential attributes;
forming arts heritage is key to commodify and promote it cultural distance;
effectively. Cantonese opera is the traditional performing arts of international tourist; Macao
Cantonese speakers in Macao, Hong Kong, and Guangdong
Province of China. Its core attractiveness is investigated by explor- 关键词
ing and evaluating its intrinsic and experiential attributes from 表演类遗产; 粤剧;
cultural tourists’ perspective. Based on the survey of 500 inter- 本质及体验特征;
national tourists, the results have identified five dimensions of 文化差距;
国际游客; 澳门
intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera, including
authenticity and nostalgia, artistic craftsmanship, convenient con-
sumption, enjoyment, and cultural significance. The evaluation of
these attributes reflects international tourists’ perception of the
core attractiveness of Cantonese opera. Moreover, the cultural
and geographical distances between international tourists’ resi-
dential places and Macao are found to influence tourists’ percep-
tion of Cantonese opera significantly. Tourists with longer
geographical distances from Macao are found to see Cantonese
opera more attractive than those tourists with shorter geograph-
ical distances from Macao. The findings suggest some guidelines
for the commodification and promotion of Cantonese opera as a
tourism product for international tourists with different cultural
backgrounds. Furthermore, the results advance the knowledge of
the core attractiveness of performing arts heritage and add values
to the literature of tourists’ experiences with traditional perform-
ing arts as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The five
dimensions of attributes identified in the results also contribute
to the future research of different types of performing arts heri-
tage.

摘要

和物质文化遗产相似, 作为人类非物质文化遗产的传统表演艺术
是发展遗产旅游的珍贵资源。可惜现时在这领域上只有很少的研
究, 至使如何改良及向游客推广传统表演艺术的方法模糊不清。
了解表演艺术遗产才能有效地改良及向游客推广。粤剧是澳门、
香港、大陆广东省人的传统表演艺术, 要从文化游客的角度去探

CONTACT Man-U Io yan@ift.edu.mo

ß 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 M.-U. IO

讨及评估其内在的体验性特质才了解其核心魅力。在500位国际
游客的调查中, 粤剧的魅力特质被区分为五个范围, 包括: 真实性
及怀旧、艺术工艺、观赏便利性、乐趣、文化显著性。这些特质
的评估也突显了国际游客对粤剧的核心魅力的想法。而且, 游客
的居住地及文化差距对他们怎么看粤剧有明显的影响, 游客的居
住地与澳门的差距越大就越觉得粤剧有魅力。这些发现为如何改
良及推广粤剧提供了一些针对性的指引。研究结果加强了我们对
表演艺术遗产的了解, 也增添了文献中游客对传统表演艺术类的
文化遗产体验的内容。研究结果中已区分出的五个特质范围对将
来研究不同的表演艺术遗产也提供了帮助

Introduction
The inscription on the world heritage list contributes much to the popularity and sus-
tainable development of many tangible heritage attractions (Hede, 2008; Lia, Wu, &
Cai, 2008). However, much scholarly attention has been paid to tangible cultural heri-
tage sites in terms of their preservation, sustainability, and authenticity (Du Cros, 2007;
Gilmore, Carson, & Ascenç~ao, 2007; Rojas & Camarero, 2008), whereas academic
research on performing arts heritage as the intangible cultural heritage of humanity is
relatively little.
Intangible cultural heritage is defined as the practices, representations, expressions,
knowledge, skills –as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associ-
ated therewith- that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as
part of their cultural heritage (UNESCO, 2003a). As a form of intangible cultural heri-
tage, performing arts range from vocal and instrumental music, dance and theatre to
pantomime, sung verse and beyond. They include numerous cultural expressions that
reflect human creativity and that are also found, to some extent, in many other intan-
gible cultural heritage domains (UNESCO, 2003b). Performing arts heritage is particularly
useful for communicating the host community’s understanding and belief of their own
culture and history to tourists through their traditional music & dance or ritual
(Mason, 2004; Xie & Lane, 2006). By watching traditional performing arts, tourists learn
about the culture, history, and custom of the destination and its people (Butler, 2006;
Fremaux & Fremaux, 2013; Xie, Osumare, & Ibrahim, 2007). In addition to being a tour-
ist product, traditional performing arts can serve as a resource for developing new
tourism projects, such as museums of musicians and performing arts events for tou-
rists (Butler, 2006; Fremaux & Fremaux, 2013; Gapinski, 1988).
To diminish the heavy reliance on gaming tourism, Macao government has been
trying to diversify Macao’s economy by developing cultural heritage-based tourism
since a decade ago (Du Cros, 2009; Io, 2011). The Historic Center of Macao, inscribed
on the world heritage list in 2005, has successfully attracted many tourists and con-
tributed much to the development of cultural heritage tourism. However, Cantonese
opera, as the performing arts heritage of Cantonese people, has remained unfamiliar
to many non-Cantonese speaking tourists since its inscription on UNESCO representa-
tive list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2009 (UNESCO, 2009).
Cantonese opera, known as Yueju opera, refers to The Chinese tradition of Yueju
opera combines Mandarin operatic traditions and Cantonese dialect. Rooted in the
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 3

Cantonese-speaking provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in south-eastern China, Yueju

opera is characterized by a combination of string and percussion instruments, with elab-
orate costumes and face painting. (UNESCO, 2009).
As an important living heritage in Macao, Hong Kong, and Guangdong province of
mainland China, Cantonese opera is well-known to many local and overseas Cantonese
people, especially the elderly. It shows the traditional Cantonese music, represents the
Cantonese culture, and reflects Cantonese people’ collective memory of their past
(Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2016). Moreover, Macao was an important place where
Cantonese opera had its golden era of development in 20th century (Zhang, 2010).
Despite its cultural and heritage values, Cantonese opera is underused as a tourism
resource to enrich tourists’ cultural and heritage tourism experiences today (Io, 2018).
The weak understanding of tourists’ experiences with Cantonese opera and perception
of its attractiveness is key to limit the effectiveness of using Cantonese opera to enrich
tourists’ experiences with Macao’s cultural and heritage tourism (Io, 2018).
The core attractiveness of performing arts as cultural heritage lies on a set of intrinsic
attributes which refer to the artistic craftsmanship as the original ingredients of the per-
forming arts (Bergadaa & Lorey, 2015; Matheson, 2008) and experiential attributes
attached to popular cultural heritage consistently, such as authentic experiences
(McKercher, Ho, & Du Cros, 2004; Richards, 2007). However, many performing arts events
paid much attention to their extrinsic attributes which facilitate the promotion and pro-
duction of live performances, such as stage design, production quality, and marketing
mix (Bose & Ponnam, 2011; Lee, Yim, Jones, & Kim, 2016; Urrutiaguer, 2014). Though the
importance of extrinsic attributes is well recognized, the intrinsic and experiential attrib-
utes of performing arts heritage lack research (Io, 2018; Lee et al., 2016; Park & Petrick,
2016). To fill this gap, this study attempts to investigate the core attractiveness of
Cantonese opera as a type of performing arts heritage in Macao by exploring and evalu-
ating its intrinsic and experiential attributes. The results will give guidelines to the com-
modification and promotion of intangible cultural heritage for tourists in addition to
advancing the knowledge of tourist experience with performing arts heritage.

Literature review
Similar to modern/pop performing arts, traditional performing arts consist of a number
of extrinsic and intrinsic attributes. The extrinsic attributes mainly facilitate marketing
mix (i.e. price, venue facilities, and services) and production of live performances (i.e.
stage design, standard of performers) (Lee et al., 2016; Lim & Bendle, 2012; Park &
Petrick, 2016). These extrinsic attributes are adjustable according to different scales of
performing arts events, venues, and audiences. Each type of performing arts heritage
has its own artistic craftsmanship which serves as the original and intrinsic attribute of
the performing arts and consistently displays in different scales of live performances
(Bergadaa & Lorey, 2015; Matheson, 2008; Xie et al., 2007). As the original and intrinsic
ingredient of performing arts, artistic craftsmanship differentiates a type of performing
arts from others (Bergadaa & Lorey, 2015; Mason, 2004; Roth & Romeo, 1992).
Moreover, artistic craftsmanship plays an important role in audiences’ entertainment
4 M.-U. IO

experience and enjoyment, and in turn benefits the attractiveness and popularity of
the performing arts heritage (Li, 2012; Park & Petrick, 2016).
As a type of intangible cultural heritage, traditional performing arts share some
similar experiential attributes with tangible cultural heritage, such as authentic and
learning experiences (Chhabra, 2010; Miichi, 2016; Santa-Cruz, 2016). The experiential
attributes of cultural heritage are broadly discussed with tourists’ motivation for visit-
ing cultural heritage and traditional events/festivals (Crompton & McKay, 1997; Fu,
Zhang, Lehto, & Miao, 2018; Kay, 2009). In events/festivals, social interaction is a popu-
lar experiential attribute (Chang, 2006; Schofield & Thompson, 2007), but it is not a
key attribute of the performing arts as cultural heritage, since many audiences are
attracted by the staged performance instead of the chance of social interaction during
the performance (Matheson, 2008; Vinnicombe & Sou, 2017).
Among a number of experiential attributes, authenticity is the most popular experi-
ential attribute for research in the field of cultural heritage (Carnegie & McCabe, 2008;
Poria, Reichel, & Biran, 2006). The existential authenticity, which referred to a potential
existential state of Being that is to be activated by tourist activities (p. 352), explained a
greater variety of tourist experience according to Wang (1999). In the study of Deacon
and Smeets (2013), authenticity of cultural heritage was defined by Stovel (2007) as
the ability of aspect of cultural heritage to convey its value (i.e. outstanding universal
value), thus authenticity refers to the credibility of the evidence presented to support
claims of value (p. 138, Deacon & Smeets, 2013). Keeping the authenticity in the com-
modified cultural events is key to attract tourists successfully (Carnegie & McCabe,
2008; Chhabra, Healy, & Sills, 2003; Fu et al., 2018).
Different from tangible heritage sites, performing arts heritage brings performative
authenticity to audiences (Zhu, 2012). Performative authenticity illustrates the dynamic
interaction between memory, habitus, and embodied practice (Zhu, 2012). In music tour-
ism, authentic music is that assessed to be credible, representative of the genre, original
and reflecting the intentions of the performers (Xie et al., 2007), thus when the local per-
formers perform their own traditional music and dance, tourists are likely to consider
their performance more authentic than that of foreign performers from other places.
The attractiveness of performing arts much depends on how performers present and
communicate the unique cultural attributes of a particular type of performing arts to
audiences (Bose & Ponnam, 2011; Lim & Bendle, 2012; Tivers, 2002).
In addition to authenticity, McKercher et al. (2004) suggested that popular cultural
heritage consisted of some primary experiential attributes: uniqueness, relevance to
tourists, ease of consumption, and educational and entertainment values. Among
these attributes, learning experience was recognized as an attractive attribute of the
local traditional cultural events and performing arts (Ark & Richards, 2005; Matheson,
2008). To facilitate tourists’ learning about the local culture of the destination and
stimulate their interest in it, appropriate heritage interpretation and commodification
are necessary (Ablett & Dyer, 2009). Ablett & Dyer (2009) argued that heritage inter-
pretation was not limited to cognitive information processing but should be broadly
inclusive, culturally situated, dialogical, and critically reflexive. Hence the commodifica-
tion of traditional performing arts for tourists was advocated (Cohen, 1988; Xie &
Lane, 2006). To avoid over commodification which may turn the aboriginal arts
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 5

performance into ‘inauthentic’ (Xie & Lane, 2006), a good understanding of the original
ingredients and authenticity of the crafts is important.
According to McKercher et al. (2004), ease of consumption contributed much to the
popularity of heritage attractions. Tourists enjoyed visiting some heritage attractions
which were easy to visit and highly available for them, and in turn the ease of con-
sumption led tourists to perceive the heritage attractions as popular and attractive.
Previous studies also suggested that popular cultural products and events were highly
available for tourists (Fremaux & Fremaux, 2013; Lim & Bendle, 2012; Stoddard, Evans,
& Shao, 2012; Xie et al., 2007). The ease of consumption not only benefits the popular-
ity of the traditional performing arts in the destination but also stimulates tourists’
demand for it and in turn improves the popularity of arts performances (Gapinski,
1988; Tikkanen, 2008). Moreover, the convenience of consumption helps to evoke tou-
rists’ interest in relevant cultural performing arts and curiosity about the local culture
(Kim, Chung, & King, 2018; Palma, Palma, Rodrıguez, & Jose Luis Martın, 2017). Popular
cultural events/products are perceived as interesting and attractive because they pro-
vide tourists with exotic experience and satisfy their curiosity about the local culture
(Kim et al., 2018; Yang, 2010).
Regarding the cultural uniqueness and entertainment experience of performing arts
heritage, previous studies suggested that the cultural uniqueness of performing arts
heritage lay on the local history and culture of the destination (Butler, 2006; Mason,
2004; Matheson, 2008; Richards, 2007). The local history and culture of the destination
also made the performing arts heritage a form of relief to aid the local victims of dis-
aster by stimulating their memory of their own cultural identity and values (Miichi,
2016). The entertainment experience of cultural heritage attractions was an important
experience sought by cultural tourists (Moscardo & Pearce, 1999; Yang & Wall, 2009).
To meet tourists’ need for entertainment, some traditional performing arts have been
modified for tourists by adding some pop/modern elements. For example, some
Korean performing arts have been commodified as a tourist-oriented entertainment
show in South Korea since mid-1990s, and the popularity of such performing arts for
tourists is evidenced with a steady increase in the past decade (Lim & Bendle, 2012;
Park & Petrick, 2016).
In addition, the cultural uniqueness of cultural heritage products led tourists to
experience some emotional thoughts which were regarded as an important experien-
tial attribute (McIntosh & Prentice, 1999; Poria et al., 2006; Tiberghien, Bremner, &
Milne, 2017). By learning about the past of the destination and how people lived and
created their own culture in the past, tourists gain a sense of nostalgia and recall and
compare their own cultural heritage with the local cultural heritage of the destination
(Leong, Yeh, Hsiao, & Huan, 2015; Pearce, 2012; Weaver, Kwek, & Wang, 2017). By
learning about the past of human lives and recalling their own cultural heritage, tou-
rists gradually understand and appreciate the cultural heritage of the destination and
its universal values (Fu et al., 2018; McIntosh & Prentice, 1999).
Emotional experience is subjective and personalized, and it depends on tourists’
cognitive understanding of the cultural heritage and the destinations (Bosque &
Martin, 2008; Ortony, Clore, & Collins, 1988). Previous studies found that tourists’ cul-
tural and geographical distance from the destination could influence tourist behavior
6 M.-U. IO

(Ng, Lee, & Soutar, 2007; Pizam & Fleischer, 2005). Moreover, tourists’ cultural back-
ground not only found to influence their cognitive understanding of the world, but
also their preference of and emotional experiences with cultural heritage products
(Bose & Ponnam, 2011; Roth & Romeo, 1992; Schofield & Thompson, 2007). To ensure
accurate and comprehensive evaluation of the core attractiveness of performing arts
heritage, it is necessary to take tourists’ diverse cultural backgrounds into account.

Methodology
This study attempts to investigate cultural tourists’ perception of the core attractive-
ness of Cantonese opera by exploring and evaluating its artistic craftsmanship as the
intrinsic attributes and core experiential attributes attached to popular cultural heri-
tage consistently. The mixture of qualitative interview and quantitative survey was
adopted for this study. In the first phase, considering that international tourists gener-
ally are not familiar with Cantonese opera and thus not able to identify and under-
stand the original artistic craftsmanship of Cantonese opera, in-depth interviews were
undertaken with local sophisticated Cantonese opera performers and fans. In-depth
interview was well recognized as an appropriate method for capturing insights and
the subjective judgments of interviewees about the intrinsic attributes of performing
arts heritage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003). These interviewees were very familiar with
Cantonese opera. They have been performing or watching the opera for over 10 to
30 years. They could perfectly describe the original artistic craftsmanship of Cantonese
opera. Tourists’ perception of the artistic craftsmanship as the intrinsic attributes of
Cantonese opera was evaluated by quantitative survey afterward.
There are over 200 Cantonese opera associations registered in Macao and perform-
ing regularly every month for local residents, and the local opera fans mostly were the
middle aged and the elderly Cantonese speakers in Macao who watch Cantonese
opera oftentimes (Io, 2018). The author interviewed 15 local Cantonese opera fans and
performers (8 females and 7 males) through a purposive sampling approach to collect
rich information and comprehensive opinions from the experts of Cantonese opera
(McCracken, 1988). Each interview lasted from 30 to 60 min. Interviewees ranged from
40 to 70 years old. The interview questions focused on interviewees’ views and experi-
ences of watching Cantonese opera. For example, ‘Why and how often do you watch
Cantonese opera performance?’, ‘How do you describe the special features of
Cantonese opera?’, and ‘What intrinsic attributes does Cantonese opera have?’ All
interviews were audio recorded under interviewees’ consent and transcribed.
With the approach of thematic analysis and constant comparative method
(Silverman, 2011), the author conducted the data analysis by coding and categorizing
the emerging themes and key words of the transcripts. As suggested by Strauss (1987)
and Silverman (2011), open coding was undertaken to conceptualize and categorize
data, followed by axial coding, which aimed to group the codes according to concep-
tual categories that reflect commonalities among them. According to the frequency of
key words and relevance to the intrinsic attributes of Cantonese opera told by inter-
viewees, key words were categorized into some themes which were identified and
examined by using constant comparison method as suggested by Silverman (2011).
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 7

Finally, three major themes were identified, including craftsmanship (i.e. dance and
singing style), cultural uniqueness (i.e. Cantonese verses and music), and entertain-
ment values (i.e. funny performances and star performers). The items from the major
themes were put in the survey questionnaire for evaluating tourists’ perception of the
artistic craftsmanship of Cantonese opera.
In addition to interviews, the existing literature of cultural heritage attractions and
modern/pop performing arts provided a wide range of experiential attributes for eval-
uating tourists’ experiences with performing arts heritage, such as authenticity, learn-
ing experience, entertainment, stage technology, pricing and location, repertory
strategies, etc. (Barbieri & Mahoney, 2010; Cancellieri & Turrini, 2016; Deacon &
Smeets, 2013; Lim & Bendle, 2012; Zhu, 2012). By combining the results of interviews
and literature review, the author has generated a list of 35 items for the development
of measurement scale.
However, to focus on the intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera, the
list of 35 items has been shortened by combining some items with similar meanings and
removing some irrelevant items. For example, stage technology, pricing, venue setting,
venue facilities, sound effect were removed from the list due to their irrelevance to the
intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera. Some items were combined to
one due to their similar meanings. For example, ‘melody’ and ‘songs’ were combined as
‘music’; ‘thought of the past’ and ‘past memory’ were combined as ‘recall memory’. Then
Pilot test was conducted to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire by delivering to 20
Cantonese-opera audiences at the entrance of local theater where Cantonese opera per-
formances are held oftentimes. Finally, the questionnaire was revised according to respond-
ents’ comments, and total 21 items of intrinsic and experiential attributes were confirmed
and put in the survey questionnaire. The items were measured by a 5-point Likert scale
with anchors 1 ¼ not at all to 5 ¼ very much. The survey questionnaire consisted of three
sections: demographic information, trip characteristics, and tourists’ perception of
Cantonese opera. The survey was conducted during the period of Chinese New Year.
The target interviewees were the cultural tourists who may have more interest in trad-
itional performing arts. They were found at three major heritage sites of Macao where trad-
itional performing arts take place sometimes, including Ruins of St. Paul, Senato square,
and St. Augustine’s square. The survey sample included the tourists from mainland China,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, other Asian countries, and Western tourists from Europe,
UK, U.S.A., and Australia. Such cultural diversified sample helped to investigate how tourists
with different cultural backgrounds perceived the core attractiveness of Cantonese opera.
Survey assistants stayed at each heritage site for 6 h every day on 5 consecutive days to
interview tourists and help them fill in the questionnaire on a first come first approach
basis. The survey questionnaires were translated from Chinese to Korean, Japanese, and
English for respondents of different nationalities by three bilingual language teachers.
All respondents were asked about their experience of watching Cantonese opera in
Macao or other places. Approximate 72% of the sample, particularly the Chinese
respondents, acknowledged that they watched Cantonese opera before on Internet,
TV/movies, and cultural events in other places, while 10% respondents watched it in
Macao before, and 18% respondents (mainly from Asian regions and Western coun-
tries) never watched Cantonese opera before. Given that there was no regular live
8 M.-U. IO

performances of Cantonese opera for tourists in Macao, tourists who may have interest
in performing arts heritage can hardly get a chance to watch it. Therefore, to ensure
all respondents have a clear idea about Cantonese opera, survey assistants showed
them a 5-min video of Cantonese opera by iPad at the pre-setup survey booth, fol-
lowed by filling the questionnaire. A total of 500 completed questionnaires were col-
lected, excluding 23 incomplete questionnaires.

Results and discussion

This study has explored and assessed cultural/heritage tourists’ perception of the
intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera. Firstly, the profile of respond-
ents shown in Table 1 revealed that most respondents came from Mainland China,

Table 1. Tourist profile.

Variables (n ¼ 500) Frequency Percentage
Place of residence
Canton province 138 27.6
Non-Canton province 74 14.8
Hong Kong 32 6.4
Taiwan 16 3.2
South Korea 50 10
Other Asian regions 82 16.4
Western countries 108 21.6
Frequency of visit
First-time visitor 270 54
Repeat visitor 230 46
Travel companion
Spouse 72 14.4
Family/relatives 255 51
Friends/colleagues 158 31.6
Alone 15 3
Length of stay
1 day 216 43.2
2 days 141 28.2
3 days 73 14.6
4 days 70 14
Tour mode
Package tour 19 3.8
Independent tour 481 96.2
Gender
Male 230 46
Female 270 54
Age
18–29 225 45
30–49 198 39.6
50–65 58 11.6
>65 19 3.8
Education
Primary school 10 2
High school 106 21.2
Tertiary 254 50.8
Post graduate 130 26
Employment
Blue collar 61 12.2
White collar 133 26.6
Full-time student 116 23.2
Professional 78 15.6
Employer/executive director 61 12.2
Retired/part-timer 51 10.2
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 9

Table 2. Factors for determining the attractiveness of Cantonese opera (CO) by EFA (N ¼ 250).
　 Factor loading Mean Std. deviation % of variance
Authenticity and nostalgia (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.90) 19.90
CO shows the life style of Cantonese folks 0.80 3.35 0.99
CO offers authentic experience 0.77 3.86 0.98
CO recalls memories about the past 0.76 3.26 1.04
CO is traditional and artistic 0.75 3.86 0.92
CO is precious heritage of humanity 0.72 4.04 0.98
CO is meaningful 0.69 3.73 0.95
Artistic craftsmanship (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.92) 16.80
Music and dance of CO 0.89 3.06 1.05
Verses of CO 0.84 2.94 1.03
Drama of CO 0.82 2.95 1.03
Costume and make-up 0.80 3.37 1.13
Convenient consumption (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.84) 12.19
Often find CO performances in Macao 0.89 2.22 0.94
Often find CO information in Macao 0.81 2.34 0.95
Often find traditional performing arts in Macao 0.76 2.44 1.01
Enjoyment (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.88) 11.75
Feel good about CO exhibitions 0.82 3.18 1.10
Feel good about CO performances 0.80 3.20 1.10
Feel good about CO souvenirs 0.67 2.72 1.09
Cultural significance (Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.76) 11.29
CO is a cultural symbol 0.76 3.43 1.12
Learn Cantonese culture through CO 0.71 3.22 1.05
Macao has many cultural performances 0.63 3.56 1.04
Experience local lifestyle through CO 0.53 3.00 1.03
CO is attractive in Macao 0.47 2.98 1.14

other Asian regions (including Japan, Thailand, India, and Malaysia), and Western coun-
tries. Among the Chinese tourists, most respondents came from Canton province
(27.6%). Respondents from other Asian regions and South Korea occupied 26.4%.
Respondents from western countries, including U.S.A., European countries, Australia,
and UK, accounted for 21.6% of the total. 96% respondents visited Macao individually.
54% respondents visited Macao for the first time, and 71.4% respondents stayed in
Macao from 1 to 2 days. The demographic information revealed that the sample con-
tained more female respondents (54%) than male respondents (46%). The majority of
respondents aged from 30 to 65 (51.2%). Over half of the sample (50.8%) have fin-
ished their tertiary education. The profile of respondents suggested that respondents
were generally middle-aged and better educated. Their demographic and trip charac-
teristics, such as age, gender, and length of stay, were similar to that of Macao
inbound tourists in recent years (Statistics and Census Bureau, 2015).
To determine the underlying dimensions of intrinsic and experiential attributes of
Cantonese opera, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted, followed by the
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which aimed to further test the factors generated
from EFA. As suggested by Hair et al. (2010), to accumulate the validity evidence of
constructs in the model, the EFA and CFA should be tested on two different samples.
Splitting the data set into two sub-samples randomly for the tests of EFA and CFA is
an effective approach for supporting the validity evidence (Browne & Cudeck, 1992).
Therefore, 500 respondents were split into two sub-samples randomly. Sample 1 with
250 respondents was used for EFA, and sample 2 was used for CFA. As shown in
Table 2, by using the principal component extraction with Varimax rotation, five fac-
tors were extracted from 21 items, which represent five dimensions of intrinsic and
10 M.-U. IO

Table 3. Factors for determining the attractiveness of Cantonese opera (CO) by CFA (N ¼ 250).
Standard factor Std.
loadings Mean deviation CR AVE R2
Factor 1. Authenticity and nostalgia, Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.886 3.65 0.79 0.88 0.54
CO recalls memories about the past 0.60 3.22 1.00 0.36
CO shows the life style of Cantonese folks 0.66 3.28 0.98 0.43
CO is precious heritage of humanity 0.79 4.00 1.00 0.63
CO is meaningful 0.79 3.69 1.02 0.62
CO is traditional and artistic 0.79 3.85 0.96 0.62
CO offers authentic experience 0.78 3.84 0.99 0.61
Factor 2. Artistic craftsmanship. Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.915 3.11 0.94 0.91 0.72
Drama of CO 0.89 2.98 1.02 0.80
Verses of CO 0.93 2.93 1.02 0.87
Music and dance of CO 0.86 3.10 1.05 0.73
Costume and make-up 0.70 3.41 1.11 0.49
Factor 3. Convenient consumption. Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.847 2.33 0.84 0.87 0.69
Often find CO information in Macao 0.75 2.31 0.94 0.57
Often find CO performances in Macao 0.99 2.23 0.93 0.98
Often find traditional performing arts in Macao 0.71 2.47 0.99 0.51
Factor 4. Enjoyment. Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.853 3.04 0.93 0.86 0.68
Feel good about CO performances 0.90 3.18 1.05 0.81
Feel good about CO exhibitions 0.89 3.20 1.05 0.80
Feel good about CO souvenirs 0.67 2.75 1.07 0.44
Factor 5. Cultural significance. Cronbach’s alpha 5 0.783 3.24 0.88 0.80 0.57
CO is a cultural symbol 0.77 3.49 1.11 0.59
Learn Cantonese culture through CO 0.84 3.25 1.04 0.71
Experience local lifestyle through CO 0.64 3.00 1.00 0.41
Note: Cmin/df ¼ 2.96 (<3), GFI ¼ 0.92, IFI ¼ 0.96, CFI ¼ 0.96, RMESEA ¼ 0.063.

experiential attributes of Cantonese opera. Each factor was defined by the items with
higher loadings on it. The factor loadings of most items were higher than 0.5, and the
Cronbach’s alpha of all five factors exceeded the 0.7 threshold value, suggesting that
five factors were well defined and reliable (Hair et al., 2010).
To examine the validity of the five dimensions defined in EFA, CFA was conducted.
The overall fitness of the CFA model was tested by common parameters, including
Chi-square value and degree of freedom (Cmin/df), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), com-
parative fit index (CFI), incremental fit index (IFI), and root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA). Moreover, to improve the fitness of the CFA model, the pro-
cedure of trimming a model for better fit similar to that of Voss, Spangenberg, &
Grohmann (2003) was conducted. After adjusting the model by removing the parame-
ters that had the highest p-value (p > 0.05) and items with low loadings, 19 items in
total were left to define the five factors. The test of internal consistency of five factors
revealed that their Cronbach’s alphas were greater than 0.70, exceeding the recom-
mended standard. The five indices of goodness of fit (Cmin/df, CFI, GFI, IFI, and
RSEMA) conducted for the proposed model suggest the adequacy of the model. The
Cmin/df (2.96) is lower than 3 and suggesting the acceptance of the model (Ernest &
Heriyadi, 2008; Schumacker & Lomax, 2004). Other indices: CFI ¼ 0.96, IFI ¼ 0.96,
GFI ¼ 0.92, RSEMA ¼ 0.063 also support the model fitness (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988;
Hair et al., 2010). Moreover, the composite reliabilities (CR > 0.7) and average variance
extracted (AVE > 0.5) of five factors have exceeded the threshold and supported the
convergent validity and reliabilities.
As shown in the results of CFA (Table 3), the first experiential factor is labeled as
‘authenticity and nostalgia’, consists of six items, which revealed tourists’ nostalgic and
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 11

authentic experiences with Cantonese opera. The attributes of ‘recalls memories’,

‘traditional and artistic’, and ‘shows the life style of Cantonese folks’ suggested that
Cantonese opera provided audiences with some nostalgic feelings by communicating
the past lifestyle and tradition of Cantonese people to them and led them to think
about the past of people and the place. Hence respondents perceived Cantonese
opera as the ‘precious heritage of humanity’ (M ¼ 4.0). Simultaneously, these attributes
supported the authentic experience with Cantonese opera and led tourists to perceive
Cantonese opera as ‘offers authentic experience’ (M ¼ 3.84), and ‘meaningful’
(M ¼ 3.69). The dimension of ‘authenticity and nostalgia’ (M ¼ 3.65) was found to be
the most important and attractive attributes of Cantonese opera among all dimen-
sions. This finding is consistent with the notion that traditional performing arts could
provide audiences with authentic and nostalgic experiences by presenting them the
cultural features and the past of the destination (Fremaux & Fremaux, 2013; Mason,
2004; Miichi, 2016). Moreover, the authenticity of performing arts heritage is performa-
tive and depending on performers’ interpretation (Zhu, 2012), thus performers play a
key role in producing the authentic and nostalgic experiences for tourists.
The second factor reveals the intrinsic attributes of Cantonese opera, labeled as
‘artistic craftsmanship’, consists of four items, which reflected the intrinsic and original
ingredients of Cantonese opera in terms of its craftsmanship, aesthetics, and entertain-
ment features. According to McKercher et al. (2004), the attractiveness of a cultural
attraction depends on how well tourists can understand and appreciate its craftsman-
ship and uniqueness. In this case, the more tourists understand and appreciate the art-
istic craftsmanship of Cantonese opera, the more they know how to enjoy Cantonese
opera. This study found that tourists’ appreciation of the artistic craftsmanship of
Cantonese opera was moderate (M ¼ 3.11). The costume of Cantonese performers was
ranked the highest (M ¼ 3.41), suggesting that respondents were impressed by the
costume most, followed by music and dance (M ¼ 3.10). The least appreciated attrib-
utes were the drama and verses of Cantonese opera (M ¼ 2.98 and 2.93). The results
suggest that not all artistic elements of Cantonese opera were perceived as attractive
to tourists. The ‘drama and verses’ attribute requires a high level of understanding in
Cantonese and Chinese literature, so foreign visitors who know very little about
Chinese literature or Cantonese were likely to perceive this attribute less attractive.
The third experiential factor is labeled as ‘“convenient consumption’ and consisting
of three items, which indicated the ease or convenience of consumption of Cantonese
opera for tourists in Macao. The ease of consumption, as an important experiential
attribute of attractive cultural attractions, stimulated tourists’ demand for the cultural
heritage and in turn led tourists to perceive the heritage attractions as popular and
attractive (McKercher et al., 2004). The popularity of performing arts heritage was
much related to tourists’ convenient consumption experience and demand (Gapinski,
1988; Palma et al., 2017). In the example of flamenco in Spain, it was found that tou-
rists’ demand for flamenco increased along with the increase of its supply steadily
(Palma et al., 2017). A higher level of supply benefited tourists’ convenient consump-
tion experience and demand for flamenco, and in turn improved the popularity of fla-
menco (Palma et al., 2017). In this case, a higher level of supply was likely to improve
tourists’ convenient consumption experience and demand for Cantonese opera and in
12 M.-U. IO

turn improve the popularity and attractiveness of the opera. In this study, the statis-
tical results revealed that the level of convenient consumption experience was the
weakest one among all dimensions of attributes (M ¼ 2.33). Respondents generally
experienced a low level of convenience of watching Cantonese opera and other trad-
itional performing arts in Macao. The low level of supply discounted the exposure of
Cantonese opera to tourists and discouraged tourists’ consumption of the opera in
Macao (Io, 2018). In light of the study of McKercher et al. (2004) that the ease of con-
sumption serves as a primary experiential attribute of popular heritage attractions, the
improvement of tourists’ convenient consumption experience with Cantonese opera
becomes important. Practitioners should stage more live performances of Cantonese
opera for tourists in different occasions, venues, and scales.
The fourth experiential factor is labeled as ‘enjoyment’ and consisting of three
items, which revealed tourists’ positive feelings and interest in Cantonese opera and
relevant products such as exhibition and souvenirs of Cantonese opera. Tourists’ posi-
tive feelings with the heritage products are important experiential attributes (Mitas,
Yarnal, Adams, & Ram, 2012; Rojas & Camarero, 2008). Popular and attractive tourism
products always bring tourists fun and joy (Filep & Deery, 2010; Xie et al., 2007).
Moreover, attractive performing arts events not only entertain tourists but also could
stimulate their interest in relevant events (Crompton & McKay, 1997; Kim et al., 2018;
Yang, Gu, & Cen, 2011). Given that respondents felt good about Cantonese opera and
relevant products at a moderate level only according to the statistical results
(M ¼ 3.04), tourists’ enjoyment of Cantonese opera deserves more investigation and
improvement.
Lastly, the fifth experiential factor, labeled as ‘cultural significance’ and consisting of
three items, revealed that Cantonese opera provided tourists with an exotic cultural
experience, through which tourists learnt about the cultural symbol of Cantonese peo-
ple and Cantonese people’ taste and preference in traditional performing arts. This
‘cultural significance’ dimension (M ¼ 3.24) was ranked the second highest among five
dimensions by respondents, suggesting that ‘cultural significance’ attributes were
important for shaping the core attractiveness of Cantonese opera. The dimension of
‘cultural significance’ revealed how Cantonese opera attracted tourists by revealing its
own cultural uniqueness and satisfying their need for learning and experiencing the
local cultures, which is consistent with a notion that many traditional cultural events
of the destination attracted tourists by their own cultural characteristics (Park,
Reisinger, & Kang, 2008; Schofield & Thompson, 2007). Therefore, the cultural features
of Cantonese opera should be well preserved in its commodification for tourists.

Perception of different tourist markets toward Cantonese opera

The five dimensions of experiential attributes have served as a framework to assess
the core attractiveness of Cantonese opera comprehensively, but given that tourists
with different cultural backgrounds may have different perceptions of Cantonese
opera, this present study investigated the perceptions of international tourists toward
the intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera. As shown in Table 4, the
overall MANOVA tests (Wilks’ Lambda, Pillai’s Trace, Hotelling’s Trace, and Roy’s
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 13

Table 4. MANOVA results for the relationship between tourist residence and experience with
Cantonese opera
Place of residence (n ¼ 500)
Non- Other
Canton Hong South Asian Western
Canton province Kong Taiwan Korea regions countries
Dependent variables (n ¼ 138) (n ¼ 74) (n ¼ 32) (n ¼ 16) (n ¼ 50) (n ¼ 82) (n ¼ 108) F Sig.
Authenticity and nostalgia 3.77b 3.64ab 3.19a 3.2a 3.53ab 3.82b 3.61ab 4.26 0.000
Artistic craftsmanship 3.01ab 2.86ab 2.57a 2.88ab 2.84ab 3.61c 3.32bc 9.39 0.000
Convenient consumption 2.27ab 2.42ab 2.16a 2.71b 2.3ab 2.43ab 2.32ab 1.23 0.287
Enjoyment 2.94ab 3b 2.39a 3.08b 2.9ab 3.41b 3.18b 6.13 0.000
Cultural significance 2.95ab 3.23bc 2.59a 3.17bc 3.5c 3.64c 3.41bc 10.66 0.000
Value df F-value Sig.
Wilk’s Lambda 0.338 30 5.96 .000
Pillai’s Trace 0.692 30 6.31 .000
Hottelling-Lawley Trace 0.405 30 6.57 .000
Roy’s largest root 0.273 6 22.45 .000 　 　 　 　 　
Note: a, b, and c means fall in different homogenous subsets in the Tukey HSD test.

Largest Root) were all significant at the .001 level, indicating that seven major tourist
markets were different in their perception of the core attractiveness of Cantonese
opera. Among five dimensions, ‘convenient consumption’ was the only variable not
significant across all tourist markets and received the lowest rating, suggesting all
tourist markets shared a similar perception of Cantonese opera in terms of its low
level of convenient consumption experience. Other dimensions were perceived signifi-
cantly different across all tourist markets (p < 0.05). In addition, the first-time and
repeat visitors were found to have different mean values for the dimensions of
‘enjoyment’ (M ¼ 3.14 and 2.93, p < 0.01) and ‘cultural significance’ (M ¼ 3.39 and 3.10,
p < 0.001) only. The mean values indicated that the first-time visitors felt positive
about Cantonese opera and appreciated its cultural significance more than the
repeat visitors.
It is interesting to find that tourists markets with longer physical and cultural dis-
tances from Macao perceived Cantonese opera more attractive than those tourist mar-
kets with shorter physical and cultural distances from Macao. For example, the tourist
markets of ‘other Asian regions’ and ‘Western countries’ had the longest distance from
Macao among all markets. They rated the highest on most dimensions of attributes of
Cantonese opera among all tourist markets, whereas Hong Kong tourists who had the
shortest cultural and geographical distances from Macao rated the lowest on all
dimensions. Though previously it was found that cultural distance could but not much
influence tourist behavior (Ahn & McKercher, 2015; Ng et al., 2007; Pizam & Fleischer,
2005), this study revealed that tourists markets with different physical and cultural dis-
tances from Macao perceived the attractiveness of Cantonese opera in Macao signifi-
cantly different.
Tourists tended to visit a culturally similar destination for vacation (Ahn &
McKercher, 2015; Ng et al., 2007), but not many of them were impressed by similar
traditional performing arts in the destination as found in this study. Instead, the need
of seeking different cultural experiences motivated tourists to visit a distant and cul-
turally different destination and attend its local cultural events (Bardhi, Ostbergb, &
14 M.-U. IO

Bengtssonc, 2010; Crompton & McKay, 1997; Kay, 2009). Consistent with this notion,
the present study revealed that the respondents from ‘other Asian regions’ (M ¼ 3.41)
and ‘Western countries’ (M ¼ 3.18) rated the highest on the dimension of ‘enjoyment’
among all tourist markets. This finding suggested that these two tourist markets were
more interested in Cantonese opera than the other tourists.

Conclusion
This study has contributed to the knowledge of traditional performing arts as the
intangible cultural heritage of humanity by investigating cultural tourists’ perception
of the intrinsic and experiential attributes of Cantonese opera in Macao. The findings
added values to the literature of tourists’ experiences with performing arts heritage.
The theoretical implications are twofold. First, this study has identified a five-dimen-
sion framework for investigaing the core attractiveness of performing arts heritage,
including: the ‘artistic craftsmanship’ dimension as the intrinsic and original attributes
of Cantonese opera, as well as four dimensions of core experiential attributes:
‘authenticity and nostalgia’, ‘cultural significance’, ‘convenient consumption’, and
‘enjoyment’. These intrinsic and experiential attributes co-shaped the core attractive-
ness of Cantonese opera. Second, the findings of this study advance the knowledge of
international tourists’ experience with performing arts heritage by revealing how
tourists’ cultural distance from the destination influenced their perception of the per-
froming arts heritage. The findings suggested tourists’ physical and cultural distance
from Macao had some impacts on their perception of the attractiveness of the
Cantonese opera.
The findings of this study also suggested some practical implications for enhancing
the core attractiveness of Cantonese opera. For example, the experiential attributes of
‘authenticity and nostalgia’ and ‘cultural significance’, and the intrinsic attributes of
‘artistic craftsmanship’ should be preserved in the commodification of Cantonese
opera. Performers should play the key role to ensure the authenticity of Cantonese
opera, since performers’ interpretation and performing approach shape the performa-
tive authenticity of performing arts heritage (Zhu, 2012). To improve tourists’ enjoy-
ment of Cantonese opera and stimulate their interest in it, practitioners may attach
relevant tangible souvenirs, games, and exhibitions to the live performances of
Cantonese opera. In addition to using ‘easy to understand’ performance approaches,
pre-performance workshops/seminars are recommended for helping tourists to under-
stand and appreciate the artistic and cultural features of Cantonese opera. Moreover,
staging more live performances of Cantonese opera for tourists in different scales and
occasions helps to improve tourists’ convenient consumption experience and in turn
stimulate their interest and curiosity in Cantonese opera, since tourists are more inter-
ested in the heritage attractions which are highly available for them (McKercher
et al., 2004).
Tourists’ perception and understanding of the core attractiveness of performing arts
heritage are subject to their cultural backgrounds and personal interpretation of their
surroundings (Bosque & Martin, 2008; Ortony et al., 1988), and tourists were more curi-
ous about the local cultural heritage of the destination, which was culturally and
 TOURISM GEOGRAPHIES 15

physically distant from theirs (Ahn & McKercher, 2015; Bardhi et al., 2010; Ng et al.,
2007). This study suggested that the promotion and commodification of Cantonese
opera should particularly emphasize the Cantonese culture for the ‘Western countries’
and ‘other Asian regions’ tourist markets, and highlight the authenticity and artistic or
entertainment values of Cantonese opera for Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong
and Guangdong province of mainland China.
The major limitation of this study is the exclusion of extrinsic attributes of
Cantonese opera, which are adjustable for live performances according to different
scales, venues, and audiences. Since the study aims to evaluate the core attractiveness
of Cantonese opera as a type of performing arts heritage to tourists, the opera’s intrin-
sic and core experiential attributes for tourists were the focus of investigation. Future
research may further investigate the overall attractiveness of performing arts heritage
by including extrinsic attributes. Moreover, the measurement scale included some
items which particularly aimed to capture the characteristics of Cantonese opera, and
hence the scale may need an adjustment to fit the characteristics of different types of
performing arts heritage when evaluating their core attractiveness.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Dr Io is an assistant professor of tourism and hospitality at the Institute of Tourism Studies,
Macao (China). Her research interests include heritage tourism, tourist experiences, integrated
resorts and nostalgia tourism.

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