Evaluating tourist perceptions of architectural heritage values at a World Heritage Site in South-East China: The case of Gulangyu Island

Tourism has become an important economic pathway through which heritage is valued. This paper evaluates tourist perceptions of architectural heritage at a World Heritage Site by combining Global Positioning System-tracking, questionnaire survey, Ordered Probit Model, and marginal utility analysis, and compares it with a broader expert and state led interpretation for optimization of heritage values inheritance by content analysis and matching model. The results respectively reveal the core value of tourist perceptions, and indicate the consistency and the degree of mismatch between tourist perception and institutional interpretation. Management implications are suggested for decision-making and planning optimization of heritage tourism sites.