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Journal of Heritage Tourism

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An investigation of the influence of

heritage tourism on local people's
sense of place: the Macau youth's
experience
a

Louis Tze-Ngai Vong

a

Institute for Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Ha, Macau,

People's Republic of China
Published online: 17 Apr 2013.

To cite this article: Louis Tze-Ngai Vong (2013) An investigation of the influence of heritage
tourism on local people's sense of place: the Macau youth's experience, Journal of Heritage
Tourism, 8:4, 292-302, DOI: 10.1080/1743873X.2013.787084
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2013.787084

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Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2013

Vol. 8, No. 4, 292 302, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2013.787084

An investigation of the inuence of heritage tourism on local peoples

sense of place: the Macau youths experience
Louis Tze-Ngai Vong
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 20:39 24 March 2015

Institute for Tourism Studies, Colina de Mong-Ha, Macau, Peoples Republic of China
(Received 10 December 2012; nal version received 11 March 2013)
With Macau making inroads into heritage tourism, Macau people are given a push to
rediscover the citys heritage values. This renewed sense of appreciation has afforded
locals across all levels of society a new perspective of their homeland. As such, with
heritage tourism continuing to blossom in a heritage-minded society, inhabitants
sense of place (SOP) may be affected accordingly. Although tourism research
literature does not lack timely discussions of Macaus heritage tourism, no studies to
date have effectively explored the inuence of heritage tourism on Macau peoples
SOP. Owing to this, the present study aims to investigate the inuence of heritage
tourism on SOP among young people in Macau.
Keywords: Macau; sense of place; world legacy

Introduction
Host to the 31st designated UNESCO heritage site in China, Macau had high hopes to use
its cultural heritage to convince the world that it is a city of culture instead of merely a
heaven for hard-core gambling (Tieben, 2009). In this regard, some success has been
noted. In a study which aimed to prole the roles and motives of tourists visiting Macau,
Lam and Vong (2009) found that tourists were very much eager to get a taste of Macaus
world legacy besides casino gambling. To meet growing tourist interest in Macaus
history and culture, Mok (2011) noted that Macau government has revisited its heritage
conservation policy, setting preservation priorities and improving on-site heritage interpretation. Besides, local authorities like Macau Cultural Bureau have also partnered with heritage-minded associations in delivering heritage education programs to raise community
awareness of heritage conservation. This whole community approach in building heritage
awareness has elevated local peoples interest of cultural heritage meanwhile affording the
city an opportunity to promote heritage tourism. For instance, the government-sponsored
heritage ambassadors training program has equipped interested citizens with fundamental
knowledge about Macaus heritage properties (Cheng, 2007). These trained individuals,
called heritage ambassadors, will then assume the role of heritage curator at specic heritage sites. From a different perspective, with increased opportunity to understand and
appreciate the citys historic, architectural, and cultural heritage, Macau people may be
inspired to perceive their hometown differently. More specically speaking, with heritage

Email: louis@ift.edu.mo

# 2013 Taylor & Francis

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293

tourism continuing to blossom in a heritage-minded community, the city of Macau may

afford its people a very distinct sense of place (SOP). In this regard, young peoples
perspective is especially important because young people are the ones who are responsible
to inherit the traditions and cultures of Macau, Ms. Pearl Chao, the president of Macau
Heritage Ambassadors Association (MHAA) was quoted as saying (Ambassadors Association (MHAA): Heritage awareness must be built up, 2010). Similarly, McCartney and
Nadkarni (2004, p. 51) stated that the views and attitudes of young people in Macau
should be attended to because they would determine and shape Macaos future legacy
and the success of cultural and heritage preservation. Although research literature does
not lack timely discussions of Macaus heritage tourism (Dewar, du Cros, & Li, 2012;
Ung & Vong, 2010; Vong & Ung, 2012; Wan & Cheng, 2011), no studies have endeavored
to explore heritage tourisms inuence on Macau youths SOP. Owing to this, the objective
of this study is to investigate heritage tourisms inuence on SOP among young people in
Macau.
Heritage, tourism, and residents SOP
In recent years, a lot has been written about heritage and SOP, and the discussions have
revolved around understanding their theoretical connection. Smith (2006) noted that heritage does not merely represent past experiences but also affect current experiences and
shape the way we see the world. Because of this, a heritage place may represent or
stand in for a sense of identity and belonging for particular individuals or groups
(Smith, 2006, p. 77). Similarly, drawing on the views of practitioners in heritage resource
management, Schoeld and Szymanski (2010) showed how cultural heritage has a marked
effect on the development of SOP. Fairclough (2010) echoed this idea by encouraging academia to explore ways in which sense(s) of place can be discovered, invented, promoted,
and used through effective heritage management. No wonder it is said that heritage
denes sense of place (Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australia, 2001).
Although Hawke (2010) criticized that the link between heritage and SOP is only a relationship tacitly accepted and little discussed in the literature, research progress in recent years
has indicated a theoretical connection between them. For example, in a study examining the
relationship between people and place in Taiwan, Davis, Huang, and Liu (2008) found that
communities tended to leverage their cultural heritage to build local identities, maintain
community sustainability, and provide a SOP to local people. Similarly, Hawkes (2010)
study which examined heritages contribution to SOP in the rural Northern Upland of
the UK, has shown that cultural heritage underpinned self-esteem, distinctiveness, and
continuity over time, all of which have marked effects on the construction of place identity
(Breakwell, 1992). In another empirical study that explored the relationship between
historic environment and residents SOP, Davies, Whimster, and Clayton (2009) uncovered
that adults who lived in areas of higher concentrations of historic environment were more
likely to have a stronger SOP. Moreover, young people interested in historic environment
were also more likely to develop a stronger SOP. Overall, the study concluded that historic
environment had a signicant and positive relationship to locals SOP.
The link between inhabitants SOP and tourism has also received some scholarly attention. Weaver and Lawton (2002) stated that destinations pursuing aggressive tourism strategy might threaten the traditional meaning of a place, thus causing inhabitants to reexamine
their feelings and connections with the place. Similarly, Shackel (2005, p. 24) called upon
tourism-dependent communities to defend local identity and a SOP through recovery,
interpretation, and the celebration of the past. In pursuance of sustainable tourism,

294

L.T.-N. Vong

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Binder (2008) noted that inhabitants SOP is critical in sustaining host communities, cultural sites, and tourist destinations. In essence, Binder (2008) asserted that SOP and
tourism development must be mutually enhancing for the long-term viability of tourism
destinations. The common thread among these scholarly comments is the realization that
tourism development does play a role in affecting inhabitants perceptions of their living
environment.
Sense of place
SOP is not easy to elucidate as it connotes an elusive or vague concept. Williams and
Steward (1998, p. 19) suggested us to think of it as the collection of meanings, beliefs,
symbols, values, and feelings that individuals and groups associate with a particular
locality. Similarly, Stedman (2002, p. 563) conceived SOP as a collection of symbolic
meanings, attachment, and satisfaction with a spatial setting held by an individual or
group. Jackson (1984, 1994) noted that the phrase sense of place is used not only to
describe the atmosphere of a place or the quality of the environment, but it also implies
a specialness that is related to rituals whereby many places are more signicant in
modern times because of the time people spent in those places rather than the distinctive
features afforded by those places. Owing to its all-encompassing qualities, many scholars
have chosen to operationalize the construct multidimensionally (Bott, 2000; Jorgensen &
Stedman, 2001, 2006; Nanzer, 2004; Stedman, 2002). For example, Stedman (2002) operationalized SOP to comprise place meanings, place attachment, and place satisfaction. Bott
(2000) developed an original, multi-item psychometric scale to measure SOP. The scale
comprised four specic domains, namely the natural-setting domains, the cultural-setting
domains, the affective individual/personal domain, and the functional individual/personal
domain. Although Bott (2000) had followed the mainstream approach in operationalizing
SOP multidimensionally, the dimensions she developed were diversely different from the
other scholarly studies in the quantitative SOP research. That said, the work of Jorgensen
and Stedman (2001) was considered as a landmark study in positivist SOP research. Having
reviewed extensively on the topic, Jorgensen and Stedman (2001) operationalized SOP as
comprising three dimensions, namely place attachment, place identity, and place dependence. Accordingly, they developed and validated a 12-item SOP scale with a sample of
lakeshore property owners in northern Wisconsin. This multi-item SOP scale (Jorgensen
& Stedman, 2001) was later adapted by Nanzer (2004) in his study of Michigan residents
SOP. With minor modications to the original SOP scale, Nanzer (2004) afrmed that
Jorgensen and Stedmans (2001) SOP scale was highly reliable in assessing the construct.
Methodology
A convenience sampling approach using questionnaire survey was adopted for the present
study. In order to reduce bias arising from this non-probability sampling method such as
having collected a sample from the same residential district, interviewers were assigned
to different densely populated neighborhoods whereby they would reach out to the target
population using mall-intercept interviewing technique. Since the target population of
this study was Macau youth, and UNESCO has dened youth as persons between the
ages of 15 and 24, interviewers would have to identify potential candidates who seemed
to belong to this specic age cohort and then invite them for interview. As soon as a potential candidate showed acceptance to participate in the survey, a preliminary screening question Are you in the age bracket 15 24? was asked to conrm if the candidate had met

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the age requirement for the study. If afrmative, the interviewer would proceed to administer the survey which required the respondent to complete a three-page close-ended questionnaire with the assistance of the interviewer. As a short note, the questionnaire was
originally developed in the English language but was translated into Chinese to facilitate
the interview process. Back translation was used to afrm the accuracy of the Chinese questionnaire before it was used for data collection. Having said so, this close-ended questionnaire was composed of three sections: Section One included a 12-item SOP scale (using
5-point rating scale with 1 very disagree, 5 very agree) aimed to assess respondents
SOP intensity (see Table 3). The construction of this SOP scale was largely based on the
work of Jorgensen and Stedman (2001) with minor modications to the scale to t the
Macau context. Also included in this section of the questionnaire was a set of four
bipolar adjective pairs (based on a 7-point rating scale) used to assess respondents attitudes
of heritage conservation vis-a`-vis urban development (see Table 2). These adjective pairs
epitomized the dilemma of choice facing many developing nations or cities, i.e. the
choice between heritage preservation and urban change (Li, 2003). In Section Two
of the questionnaire, a checklist of 10 evaluative items (using 5-point rating scale with
1 very disagree, 5 very agree) was used to evaluate the perceived inuence of heritage
tourism in Macau (see Table 4). In order to emphasize the specialness of heritage tourism,
the checklist has specically included the kinds of inuence that are highly likely to arise
because of heritage tourism. For example, the evaluative statement To help preserve historic and cultural heritage is a likely occurrence triggered by the development of heritage
tourism. As such, the items in this checklist were either drawn from scholarly references
(McKercher & du Cros, 2002; Richards, 2007) or developed by the investigator to t the
Macau situation. Finally, Section Three of the questionnaire solicited respondents background information including gender, place of birth, income level, education, and
occupation.
Findings
The study successfully interviewed 156 Macau youth-respondents aged 15 24. Table 1
shows the demographic characteristics of the sample. As expected, a majority of respondents (92.9%) were students and they were earning an income level anywhere in the
range below MOP 5000. This nding is congruent with the prevalent reality of Macau
society in which many full-time students from high schools to colleges and universities
have earned their pocket money by doing part-time or causal work. Although the sample
has suffered from oversampling female youth (66.7%), this study is predominantly
focused on understanding the perceptions of Macau youth as a distinct category of
Macau population. In this sense, even though the sample is skewed toward young
females in Macau, it can still provide relevant and useful information for the problem at
hand. Moreover, as a precautionary measure against making gender-related claims with a
sample of skewed sex ratio, this study has avoided analyzing the data from a gender-difference perspective. Based on what has been said, it hopes to alleviate the concerns with regard
to the disproportionate representation of the sexes in the sample. Having said so, it is seemingly clear that the youth respondents in this study had demonstrated a positive attitude
toward preserving the citys heritage resources. This can be seen in the way they responded
to the bipolar adjective pairs (see Table 2). As indicated in Table 2, respondents tended to
tilt toward protecting their cultural resources instead of embracing urban development if
such development requires sacrices to the citys cultural landscape. To exemplify, respondents considered it more important to maintain the world heritage site (WHS) status even

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L.T.-N. Vong
Table 1.

Descriptive data.

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Composition
Gender
Male
Female
Born in Macau
Yes
No
Education
Primary
Junior secondary
Senior secondary
University
Income (MOP)
,5000
50019000
900113,000
13,00117,000
Occupation
Supervisory level and above
Rank and le worker
Professional
Student
Others

52
104

33.3
66.7

139
17

89.1
10.9

1
2
142
11

0.6
1.3
91.0
7.1

142
10
3
1

91.0
6.4
1.9
0.6

1
3
2
145
5

0.6
1.9
1.3
92.9
3.1

Table 2. Residents attitudes of heritage awareness vis-a`-vis urban development.

Bipolar
adjectives
Protect culture
heritage
Preserve cultural
landscape
Increase cultural
events
Macau to maintain
WHS status

(1) (7)
(1) (7)
(1) (7)
(1) (7)

Urban development takes precedence over

heritage protection
Replacing age-old buildings with modern
architecture
No need to increase cultural events
Macau to absolve WHS status if urban
development demands so

Mean

Std.
dev.

3.89

2.06

3.80

2.14

3.63

1.89

3.63

2.33

if doing so may restraint urban development (mean 3.63). Similarly, they were also
more keen to preserve the citys historic and cultural landscape instead of accommodating
to the needs of modern architecture (mean 3.80). Similarly, they also welcomed Macau
to host more cultural events to consolidate its image as a city of culture. All told, respondents in this study seemed to pride themselves on Macaus cultural treasure and feel reluctant to support any proposal that may have detrimental effects on Macaus status as a world
heritage city.
Next, Table 3 shows respondents SOP assessment. Specically speaking, the twelve
attitudinal statements represented three sets of 4-item scales, each responsible for measuring
one sub-construct of SOP, namely place attachment, place identity, and place dependence.
To determine the reliability of these scales, the Cronbachs coefcient alpha for each scale
was estimated to which all the scales had demonstrated satisfactory alpha scores ranging

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Table 3. Macau youths SOP.

Place attachment
I am happy living in Macau
I would like to live in Macau for a long time
I feel relaxed when I am in Macau
I really miss Macau when I am away from it for too long
Place identity
I feel that Macau is a part of me
I identify strongly with Macau
Macau is very special to me
Macau means a lot to me
Place dependence
Macau is the best place for what I like to do
Doing what I do in Macau is more important to me than
doing it in any other place
I would not substitute any other place for doing the
types of things I do in Macau
For what I like to do, no other place can compare to Macau
SOP

Mean

Std. dev.

Alpha score

3.66
3.85
3.60
3.75
3.42
3.48
3.47
3.38
3.58
3.51
2.99
3.10
3.13

0.66
0.80
0.86
0.85
0.85
0.68
0.82
0.74
0.83
0.83
0.71
0.88
0.76

0.80

2.93

0.90

2.79
3.38

0.87

0.86

0.86

0.90

Table 4. The perceived inuence of heritage tourism in Macau society.

To
To
To
To
To
To
To
To
To
To

provide cultural exchange opportunity

increase resident self-esteem
elevate Macau as an international city
stimulate demand for exhibitions on local history and culture
sustain Macaus social-cultural environment
promote social harmony in the local community
maintain community cohesiveness
arouse local peoples interest in local cultural activities
keep the traditional way of life alive
help preserve historic and cultural heritage

Mean

Std. dev.

3.87
3.67
3.61
3.62
3.53
3.35
3.50
3.46
3.69
3.39

0.61
0.69
0.78
0.81
0.98
0.88
0.92
0.81
0.93
1.05

from 0.80 to 0.86 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). This shows that the scales were
reliable measures of their respective constructs. That said, respondents had shown relatively
stronger place attachment (mean 3.66) and place identity (mean 3.48) than place
dependence (mean 2.99). Taken together, the SOP score for the entire sample was
3.38. From a different perspective, this composite mean value reects the SOP intensity
in which a larger mean value (i.e. a larger SOP score) corresponds to a stronger
SOP caused by stronger feelings of attachment, identity, and dependence on Macau.
Table 4 summarizes the perceived inuence of heritage tourism in Macau. As one can
see, respondents generally agreed that the development of this special interest tourism
had affected Macau in different ways. For instance, they tended to agree more with the
notion that cultural exchange opportunity was made available because of heritage
tourism (mean 3.87). Similarly, they also considered heritage tourism to have elevated
Macau as an international city (mean 3.61), and for this matter, they were proud of
Macaus achievement (mean 3.67).

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L.T.-N. Vong

In order to reveal any underlying structure(s) among this pool of measurement items,
principle component factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to extract common
factors that could be used to support further in-depth analysis (see Table 5). As such, the
analysis yielded a three-factor structure which explained 58.19% of the total variance.
Although the cumulative variance of this three-factor solution falls a bit behind the recommended threshold value of 60% (Hair et al., 1998), there exists no absolute threshold
value in dictating the use of factor analysis in social science research (Hooper, 2012). Moreover, the Kaiser Meyer Oklin (KMO 0.733), the Bartlett test (p , 0.05), and the
factors eigenvalues had all indicated that this three-factor solution was acceptable (Hair
et al., 1998). Because of this, the investigator decided to retain this three-factor solution
for subsequent analysis. That said, factor one (F1) included four measurement items,
namely To provide cultural exchange opportunity, To increase resident self-esteem,
To elevate Macau as an international city, and To stimulate demand for exhibitions on
local history and culture. Taken together, these items seemed to epitomize community
pride in celebrating local culture and history. Because of this, F1 was denoted as community pride and celebration of cultures. Factor two (F2) was made up of three other measurement items which included To sustain Macaus social-cultural environment, To maintain
community cohesiveness, and To help preserve historic and cultural heritage. Since they
addressed issues relating to heritage conservation and the need to safeguard the sustainable
development in societies, F2 was therefore named as sustainability of social life and heritage protection. Finally, factor three (F3) was interpreted as promotion of cultural inheritance because the items To promote social harmony in local community, To keep the
traditional way of life alive, and To arouse local peoples interest in local cultural activities addressed the importance of cultural integrity. Subsequently, Cronbachs alpha
reliability analysis was conducted to examine factor reliabilities. As expected, all the
three factors had alpha scores well above 0.5, which is the minimum value accepted for
reliability analysis (Hair et al., 1998). As such, this three-factor solution was accepted as

Table 5. Factor analysis of perceived inuence of heritage tourism in Macau.

Factor Loading
Measurement items
Community pride and celebration of cultures (F1)
To provide cultural exchange opportunity
To increase resident self-esteem
To elevate Macau as an international city
To stimulate demand for exhibitions on local history and culture
Sustainability of social life and heritage protection (F2)
To sustain Macaus socio-cultural environment
To maintain community cohesiveness
To help preserve historic and cultural heritage
Promotion of cultural inheritance (F3)
To promote social harmony in local community
To arouse local peoples interest in local cultural activities
To keep the traditional way of life alive
Eigenvalue
Variance (%)
Cumulative variance (%)
Reliability alpha (%)
Number of items (total 10)

Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 3

0.718
0.765
0.746
0.621
0.760
0.774
0.775

2.974
29.737
29.737
70.8
4

1.821
18.207
47.944
68.1
3

0.746
0.814
0.583
1.025
10.248
58.192
60.0
3

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299

adequately reliable in describing the inuence of heritage tourism in Macau as perceived

by Macau youth. To take a closer look, community pride and celebration of cultures
seemingly constitutes the type of inuence that buttresses Macau as a renowned tourism
destination that is proud of its cultural offerings. On the other hand, sustainability of
social life and heritage protection conveys the need to keep the things the way they
presently are an idea that is very much in line with heritage conservation and protection.
In other words, heritage tourism is credited for keeping existing ways of life unchanged.
Finally, promotion of cultural inheritance functions to enliven the traditions and
customs of Macau in the hope that Macau heritage can be passed down from generation
to generation. Where these different types of inuence work together, Macau seems to
move along a stable yet progressive path of heritage tourism development.
Because this study posited that the development of heritage tourism could allow local
people to develop a renewed SOP through rediscovering their connection to the past, it
becomes imperative to examine if this hypothesized relationship holds true. This can be
achieved by examining how the three-factor solution relates to respondents SOP assessments. Accordingly, the study conducted a bivariate correlation analysis between the
three uncovered factors (using raw factor scores) and respondents SOP scores. Table 6
shows that two out of three factors had correlated signicantly and positively with the
SOP scores. These two factors were community pride and celebration of cultures and promotion of cultural inheritance. This implies that these two factors have a role in affecting
respondents SOP. To take one step forward in the analysis, the study conducted multiple
regression analysis to examine how these factors predict respondents SOP. As shown in
Table 7, the result of multiple regression analysis indicated that both community pride
and celebration of cultures and promotion of cultural inheritance were signicant and
positive predictors of SOP (F 15.003, p , 0.05). Between them, community pride
and celebration of cultures (B 0.405) was a much stronger predictor than promotion
of cultural inheritance (B 0.237). A plausible explanation of the ndings may lie in
the fact that these two factors represent the type of inuences that are very much attention-grabbing; hence they are more able to invoke residents SOP. To exemplify, rising

Table 6. Pearson product-moment coefcients between SOP and the three factors of perceived
inuence of heritage tourism in Macau.
Pearsons coefcients (r)
0.405
0.092
0.237

SOP: community pride and celebration of cultures

SOP: Sustainability of social life and heritage protection
SOP: Promotion of cultural inheritance

Signicant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

Table 7. Multiple regression results perceived inuence of heritage tourism and SOP.
Perceived inuence of heritage tourism in Macau
F1: community pride and celebration of cultures
F2: Sustainability of social life and heritage protection
F3: Promotion of cultural inheritance
F

Signicant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

Beta

2.770
0.405
5.683
0.631
0.092
1.294
1.619
0.237
3.312
15.003, p , 0.05 R2 0.228

Sig.
0.000
0.198
0.001

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L.T.-N. Vong

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international status, putting the citys cultural heritage on display, and celebrating local
customs and traditions have all constituted the kind of changes that are palpable and noticeable to Macau people. By comparison, the inuence afforded by sustainability of social life
and heritage protection may be seen as unnoticeable because this factor is basically reinforcing the existing ways of life unchanged in Macau society. This may help explain why
the correlation coefcient between SOP and sustainability of social life and heritage protection is positive but non-signicant (r 0.092).

Conclusion
This study has provided empirical support indicating the role of heritage tourism in affecting local peoples SOP. Although studies of a similar nature have been well-documented in
tourism research literature, this is the rst study of its kind to be carried out in Macau. As an
Asian city with a rich colonial legacy, Macau has always pride itself for its cultural diversity.
The advent of heritage tourism in recent years has further provided increased opportunity
for locals across all levels of society to appreciate the cultural richness embedded in their
heritage assets. Due to its exploratory nature, this study has limited its scope by investigating heritage tourisms inuence on Macau youths SOP. However, the positive ndings
in this study may shed some light on the plausibility of implementing a large, populationbased study with similar focus. Predictably, this can enhance our understanding of Macau
residents changing SOP amid the development of this special interest tourism. Alternatively, this study has also provided a platform for the undertaking of further theoretical
and empirical research in different research directions. For example, in view that SOP
can be shared or contested (Are, 1999), it will be interesting to examine how the coexistence of two seemingly incompatible concepts of gambling and heritage in Macau are to
compete for, or shape, the locals very SOP. Although the story of Macau has been reported
extensively, surprisingly there remains a complete lack of discussions about Macau residents SOP amid tourism development. Owing to this, the present study has provided a
new breath to investigate the inuence of heritage tourism in Macau through the prism
of human geographers. It has also provided a clear benchmark for further studies.

Notes on contributor
Louis Tze-Ngai Vong, holds a full-time teaching position at the Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau
(IFT). He received his PhD from the department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong.

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