Stakeholders’ perspectives of intangible cultural heritage tourism: A systematic review

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. ICH tourism is a process of social construction by stakeholders through transaction, coordination, interest alienation, responsibility sharing, and other ways. Research on ICH tourism from the stakeholders' perspectives is significant in promoting the living inheritance of ICH and the sustainable development of ICH tourism. Based on stakeholder theory, this study follows the PRISMA procedure and conducts a descriptive and thematic analysis to explore research themes, stakeholders' roles and conflicts, management recommendations, and research gaps in ICH tourism. As of April 2024, searches were conducted in two databases, Web of Science (WoS) and Elsevier's Scopus, and Ninety-six articles were systematically selected. This study also constructs a comprehensive and in-depth framework of the roles and conflicts of stakeholders in different stages of ICH tourism. This study enriched the theoretical research on ICH tourism and provided a reference for formulating more effective management strategies and guiding the sustainable development of ICH tourism and the practice of ICH protection.