Content area
Full Text
1. Introduction
The concept of red tourism originated in China in the late 1990s. In 1999, Jiangxi Province proposed the red tourism concept, which quickly gained widespread recognition nationwide (Tang et al., 2021). In 2004, the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the General Plan for the Development of Red Tourism in 2004-2010, in which a comprehensive plan, guidance and direction for red tourism development were elaborated. After that, red tourism was promoted as a national strategy in China. Now, red tourism has become an indispensable part of China’s modern tourism industry and plays a significant role in strengthening the education of revolutionary traditions, inspiring patriotic feelings, cultivating the national spirit and promoting the coordinated economic and social development of China’s old revolutionary base areas (Li et al., 2010; Zuo et al., 2016). The annual volume of red tourism trips in 2019 was 1.41 billion (Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, 2021). In 2020, although the national tourism industry was hit severely by COVID-19, red tourism visitors exceeded 100 million (People’s Daily Online, 2021).
As a type of spiritual tourism activity, red tourism’s political attributes and educational functions are becoming increasingly prominent (Zhao and Timothy, 2015; Hung, 2018). It not only promotes the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people but also enhances cultural confidence, strengthens national identity and promotes national rejuvenation (Zheng, 2016; Wall and Zhao, 2017). Thus, the CPC and the central government have repeatedly proposed that red tourism should be vigorously developed to enhance the sense of national identity and belonging and to play an active role in creating a shared spiritual home for the Chinese nation.
Emotional experiences are an essential feature of red tourism (Lin, 2015; Hu et al., 2022). Red tourism evokes mixed emotions, such as pride, excitement, sadness and shock, by exhibiting revolutionary martyrs’ outstanding achievements and historical struggles (Hu et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2018). The cognitive appraisal theory suggests that emotions are subjective psychological reactions to external stimuli, which induce behavioural responses through specific cognitive processes (Mingione et al., 2020). How do emotional experiences affect psychological responses and post-trip...