Facilitating intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource from local community perspectives

Intangible cultural heritage [ICH] is representative of a community’s cultural authenticity and identity, therefore it can be a vital resource for generating tourism at the national and local levels. Arguably however, we know little to nothing about the extent to which sustainable approaches are adopted in the development, utilization and promotion of intangible cultural heritage as a tourism drawcard in Korea. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which the development of intangible cultural heritage in Korea facilitates it as a sustainable tourism resource from local perspectives. This study revealed that a blended top-down and bottom up approach, and entrepreneurship in heritage tourism will facilitate ICH to be a sustainable tourism resource. These findings have important implications for research and governments, opening the significance of a blended top-down and bottom up approach and entrepreneurship in sustainable tourism resource development.