Preserving intangible cultural heritage authenticity in cultural landscapes: a systematic review

This paper conducts a comprehensive literature analysis to explore the relationship among tourism, Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), and cultural landscapes, focusing on authenticity. With the global tourism industry's growth and escalating competition, ICH assumes a pivotal role, especially in developing countries where communities highly value it for its authenticity. Simultaneously, studying the interactions among these elements creates opportunities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage's authenticity, developing authentic tourism experiences, and fostering authenticity in cultural landscapes. This assessment explores how authenticity in intangible cultural aspects is experienced through tourism in cultural landscapes, enhancing development thinking in research and practice. The study examines scholarly publications from 2018 to 2024, emphasising authenticity's protective role in tourism development, cultural landscape construction, and intangible cultural heritage preservation. The review summarises findings, identifies trends, and underscores key ideas. The results emphasise the significance of experiencing and preserving intangible cultural heritage's authenticity in cultural landscapes amid tourism development. Integrating tourism authenticity principles with cultural landscape construction and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, based on the literature review, offers new perspectives and theoretical support for academic research and practical applications, potentially promoting sustainable tourism, cultural landscape development, and intangible cultural heritage preservation. Furthermore, the review identifies authenticity perception methods and conservation strategies for successfully integrating tourism development with cultural landscape construction for sustainable development amid dynamic changes. Outcomes provide insights for tourism operators, cultural preservation practitioners, and scholars, offering theoretical support for sustainable cultural landscape development. It introduces novel perspectives and theoretical foundations for academic research and practical applications, with the potential to advance sustainable tourism and cultural landscape development.