The Impact of Storytelling about Local Cultural Heritage on City Attractiveness, Place Identity, and Loyalty: Focusing on Cultural Heritage Tourists in the Gongju Area

Purpose: Cultural heritage tourism is different from general tourism, so you can properly understand the cultural heritage when there is explanation through storytelling. Therefore, in this study, we aim to empirically study how cultural interpreters' storytelling about Gongju City's cultural heritage affects the city attractiveness, place identity, and loyalty perceived by tourists visiting Gongju City. Methods: For the empirical study, a survey was conducted on tourists who visited Gongsanseong Fortress and King Muryeong's Tomb, which are cultural heritage sites in the Gongju region, and experienced storytelling by cultural interpreters. A total of 182 questionnaires were used for empirical analysis. Results: As a result of factor analysis, storytelling was divided into education, interestingness, sensitivities, and theme nature categories, and city attractiveness, place identity, and loyalty were each classified into a single dimension. As a result of the hypothesis testing, it was found that among the components of storytelling, interestingness, sensitivities, and theme nature had a similar degree of influence on city attractiveness, while education had a somewhat lower influence. In addition, education had the highest influence on place identity, while interestingness, sensitivities, and theme nature had a lower influence than education. Conclusion: In the end, research has shown that storytelling about cultural heritage can increase city attractiveness, place identity, and loyalty.