Imaginaries about intangible cultural heritage and tourism in Mexican Bajio cities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the imaginaries of Generation Z inhabitants of heritage cities in the Mexican Bajio regarding their city of residence and the institutional imaginary of urban tourism. Design/methodology/approach A total of 186 students from five Mexican heritage cities completed an online questionnaire and participated in focus groups. The authors used a mixed approach with qualitative analysis for open-ended responses and a Kruskal Wallis test to measure attitudes towards tourism and its relationship to place attachment and intangible cultural heritage identification. Findings The results showed a strong relationship between place attachment and perception of tourism, but attitudes towards tourism varied among the cities, and San Juan del Río was an outlier. Among the categories of intangible cultural heritage, oral traditions showed the least agreement between youth and institutional imaginaries. Originality/value Few studies have considered Mexican youth and their imagery of the small/medium-sized city in which they live when it is promoted as an urban tourist destination.