Heritage memory and identity in Vietnam with a focus on residents’ topophilia for sustainable cultural tourism development

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of sustainable cultural tourism development in Vietnam, along with the impact of community engagement, cultural identity, topophilia, heritage memory, and the moderating effect of socioeconomic status. Using the data obtained from 183 valid respondents, community engagement, topophilia, heritage memory, and cultural identity were measured using various scales, with the alpha values ranging from 0.7602 to 0.8925. The factor analysis produced 61.88% of the total variance. As for the regression analyses, it was found that the four predictors influence the development of sustainable cultural tourism, with cultural identity showing the greatest impact (standardized coefficient 0.133). This was followed by heritage memory (0.118), topophilia (0.106), and community engagement (0.210), which had the largest impact. All the relationships were moderated by socioeconomic status, and it had its greatest effect on topophilia (0.323). Given these, the study signals that the development of sustainable cultural tourism in Vietnam is within the enhancement of the cultural essence, emotional ties to the place, and community engagement.