AUTHOR=Xu Luyao , Shi Lei , Wang Xin , Wan Yuliang , Fan Zhuo 

TITLE=Can tourists become disciples? The formation and mechanism of place conversion in traditional Chinese villages

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1301127

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1301127

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Place attachment has been extensively studied in the field of tourism. However, it is important to reco gnize that place attachment alone may not fully capture the emotional expression of tourists' spiritual beliefs and their sense of belonging to a destination. Therefore, a more comprehensive attachment th eory is needed to encompass higher dimensions. This article focuses on the ancient Chinese villages of Yantou, Cangpo and Furong from a tourist perspective, and introduces genius loci in architectural phenomenology. We set out to expand the study of spiritual dimensions of place attachment on the ba sis of local attachment, redefining tourists' place connection and putting forward the new concept of place conversion. A qualitative analysis of online text using Rooting theory was conducted to conden se 22 categories into 6 main categories and establish a model. The study shows that the mechanism of place conversion is composed of situational percrption (place perception, place identity), physical an d mental immersion (spatio-temporal immersion, place conversion), and behavioral willingness (touri sts intention, conversion behavior). The study has implications for the conservation and development of traditional villages and future research on the spiritual experiences of tourists.