Heritage and cultural tourism: the role of the aesthetic when visiting Mỹ Sơn and Cham Museum, Vietnam.

Research on motivations and perceptions of tourists at a cultural heritage site is not rare but the personal and aesthetic context of visitors’ experiences have been neglected in much of the literature on cultural tourist attraction management. Using qualitative methods, this study explores the nature of demand for heritage tourism with particular attention to the appreciation gained by visitors of indigenous Cham culture, its arts of exotic sculptures, and its monuments and architecture. These dimensions describe an evolutionary experience of place that moves some tourists from a position of relatively shallow interest to an almost spiritual position due in some part to the role of the aesthetic that rises from landscape and dance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]