The integration of culture and tourism: multi-understandings, various challenges and approaches.

The relationship between culture and tourism has a long history. However, previous studies of tourism have mainly focused on the tourism resource attributes of culture, and the impacts of tourism on culture. The establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2018 sought to encourage academics and industry to further reflect on the relationship between culture and tourism, motivating people to pay more attention to the ways in which culture and tourism can integrate further. In the current paper, we reviewed previous studies of the relationships between culture and tourism in the Chinese context, as well as studies from other countries. In addition, we examined the diachronic evolution of the theory of culture and tourism integration, coming to the conclusion that there are three layers of understandings of culture and tourism integration. The identity-related meanings of culture and the motivation of tourists to pursue identity-based experiences mean that culture possesses a range of attractive attributes for tourism, becoming a kind of tourism resource. Thus, the relationship between culture and tourism is generated. Tourists pursuit of cultural embodied experience keeps improving, and cultural features contribute to the visitability for tourists. Therefore, the relationship between culture and tourism keeps developing, and culture becomes a kind of tourism product. With the increasing commercialization of cultural exhibitions for tourists and the resulting industry chain, the integration of culture and tourism has given rise to the cultural tourism industry, which is now widely discussed. On the basis of the three-layer understandings model discussed above, various approaches and challenges in the corresponding stages of culture and tourism integration have also been proposed in this paper. In the process of culture and tourism integration, three-stage practice approaches can also be found. Cultural identity and collective memory construction are the foundation of identity symbol meaning, which is the essence of the tourism-attracting attributes of culture, providing the first stage of the culture and tourism integration practice approach. Cultural visitability production is a critical step for promoting tourist experiences of culture, which is the second stage of culture and tourism integration. Cultural visitability production consists of four main models, including the museum model with displays of tangible heritage as the core, the festival or performance model with displays of intangible cultural heritage, the historical town and themed street model with displays of living culture, and the creative theme model with displays of technology as the core. The industry chain extension of cultural tourism products provides a way to create new business models, referring to the third stage of culture and tourism integration. Thus, four cultural tourism industry business models could be promoted: developing comprehensive cultural experience space relying on traditional cultural space, developing culture and tourism performance industries involving artistic performances and tourist resources, developing culture and creativity industries with tourist-oriented souvenirs, and developing entertainment industries involving themed cultural displays. In addition, the current paper investigated the corresponding potential challenges of the three practice approaches of culture and tourism integration. During the first stage, cultural utilization contradictions could be identified. During the second stage, cultural commoditization may bring about the contradictions of cultural renaissance and loss. Commercialization may lead to cultural authenticity controversy during the last stage.