Chan, Jin ORCID: 0000-0002-6275-9763 , Ma, Congling, Piterou, Athena ORCID: 0000-0003-4138-113X and Teng, Feifei (2024) The innovation ecosystem of the tourist cultural cluster in the ancient villages of Southern Anhui. In: The 5th Conference on Managing Tourism Across Continents – Tourism for a Better World (MTCON’24), 1st - 4th May, 2024, Istanbul, Turkey. (In Press)

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Abstract

World Heritage Sites (WHS) are locations rich in cultural resources where tourism and economic growth must be balanced with heritage conservation. The Ancient Villages of Southern Anhui (Xidi & Hongun), inscribed in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 2000, are “living heritage” sites where local communities still live and work in protected buildings constructed in the architectural style of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The research site is examined as a tourist cultural cluster where local organisations active in tourism and creative industries engage in a range of relationships (collaboration, advice, funding and value chain relations). Many of these local organisations are tourism SMEs who develop their ego-networks by liaising to other local actors in Xidi & Hongcun, businesses and local government organisations in the nearby city of Huangshan and other parts of Southern Anhui province, or organisations located elsewhere in China and overseas. These relationships are visualised and analysed as four distinct social networks. The geographical composition of these networks indicates to what extent proximity affects the formation of business relations and access to resources such as knowledge and finance that the actors in the research site need in order to run their operations, access new markets and develop innovative offerings to their customers.

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	world heritage sites, innovation ecosystem, cultural cluster
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business
Last Modified:	01 Jul 2024 13:40
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/47451

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