Destination Experiencescape for Hanfu Tourism: An Exploratory Study

The rapid development of Hanfu tourism in Chinese communities encourages destinations to create a Hanfu-themed experiencescape. However, the phenomenon of Hanfu tourism integrated with destination experiencescape has received little attention from academia. This study extended the construct experiencescape to the destination level and applied it to the context of Hanfu tourism. A content analysis was conducted on the interview text sourced from five typical Chinese communities. The results showed that destination experiencescape for Hanfu tourism (thereafter DEHT) are categorized into eight components: (1) social component, (2) cultural component, (3) historic component, (4) sensory component, (5) hospitality cultural component, (6) functional component, (7) technological component, and (8) natural component. This research contributes to the existing theories concerning destination experiencescape by identifying the components of DEHT. One of the new findings is to verify the technological and historic components of DEHT utilized to enhance the experience of Hanfu tourists. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications were proposed for the destination stakeholders' reference. The scale development of DEHT is also taken into consideration in future studies.