Border destination residents' perceptions towards tourism development: the case of Lujiang, China

Border destination residents' perceptions towards tourism development: the case of Lujiang, China | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Border destination residents' perceptions towards tourism development: the case of Lujiang, China Yuelin Tan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4371675/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Destination residents are important stakeholders in tourism development, and understanding residents' perceptions of tourism is the key factor in developing successful management of sustainable tourism development. However, current studies on residents' perceptions mainly focus on ecotourism or rural tourism with quantitative methods and pay little attention to residents who are living in border destinations. This paper explores residents' perceptions of tourism development in Lujiang, a small Chinese village on the border between China and North Korea. A survey of 30 semistructured interviews was conducted to examine how various factors influence residents' perceptions of the impacts of tourism. The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was used to construct a map of perceived consensus, from which researchers identified 4 themes related to residents' perceptions of tourism. Moreover, this paper provides a new method for analyzing residents' perceptions of tourism development. ZMET might be a better way to obtain metaphorical information or more information from participants. Biological sciences/Psychology Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Border destination Residents' perceptions Tourism development Lujiang Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Introduction Once a community becomes a destination, the lives of its residents will be affected by tourism, and residents' perceptions of tourism are likely to be important planning and policy considerations for successful marketing, development, and future tourism projects. While tourism has positive impacts on destinations, it also has negative impacts, such as increased living costs and environmental pollution, so tourism is also vividly described as 'evil' 1 . In fact, positive impacts are usually obtained by a small number of people, while most residents suffer from negative impacts and receive fewer benefits, leading to changes in residents' perceptions of tourism, and perceptions usually determine residents' motivations and opportunities 2,3 . According to social exchange theory (SET), positive tourism perceptions promote residents' support for tourism, while negative tourism perceptions hinder tourism development 4,5 . However, SET focuses on the exchange of economic benefits and the impact of economic factors on residents' emotions; thus, residents who receive economic income from tourism have a more optimistic attitude toward tourism 6 . In addition, most SET studies are quantitative, and SETs always emphasize the analysis of economic factors; other factors, such as place attachment and destination tourism life cycles, are easily overlooked 7 . Therefore, these factors should also be considered when exploring the perceptions of residents, and new methods need to be used to understand the underlying reasons for perceptions. In regard to the tourism literature, destination residents' perceptions usually overlap with a number of themes, such as residents' attitudes, satisfaction, opinions, and engagement behaviors 8,9 . These factors give residents an important role as stakeholders in local tourism development 10,11 . Research on residents' perceptions of different types of destinations has focused on rural tourism, ecotourism, cruise tourism, etc. 12–14 . As "lived spaces challenged and inspired" by international boundaries, tourism in border areas has a unique geopolitically advantageous character compared to the destinations mentioned above. Since the 1990s, in the context of economic globalization, border blocks have weakened, various types of trade activities have increased, and border tourism has developed rapidly 15 . Tourism can function as a viable strategy for border areas to overcome border-related barriers. Many border areas regard tourism as the most important way to promote local economic development, and tourism has a potential effect on innovation to promote the development of border areas 16 . With the rapid development of border tourism and increasing numbers of countries and areas, border tourism has attracted the attention of many scholars and has gradually become one of the key areas in tourism research 17 . Timothy discussed the nature of political boundaries in the context of tourism and noted that border town gambling, cross-border shopping, international enclaves, and welcome centers are the new tourism attractions that are beneficial to border tourism 18 . Although border tourism has attracted attention, there has been no unified name for it. Some scholars call this "cross-border travel", and some describe it as "cross-border tourism" 19,20 . In 2006, Sofield proposed the concept of "border tourism", which was adopted by other scholars and has since been used 21 . Research on border tourism over the past 30 years has focused on the basic characteristics of border tourism, the cooperation and conflict of border tourism, the impacts of border tourism on destinations, and border tourism management 22 . However, research on the perceptions of residents of border tourism destinations remains limited, and the complex relationship between tourism and border destination communities needs further attention, especially when these destinations are located in relatively closed areas. Given that relevant research is still rare, the purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of residents of a Chinese border village regarding local tourism. The village is located in the northeastern region of China, across a river from North Korea. North Korea has been under international sanctions since the Korean War (1950–1953) in the 1950s. Sanctions have been accompanied by restrictions on the number of foreigners entering the country, adding to the country's mystique. Tourism provided North Korea with a promising means to gain foreign exchange and promote propaganda 23,24 . China is estimated to be its largest overseas tourism market 25,26 . Apart from Li's studies mentioned above, few scholars have conducted relevant studies on this topic. Accordingly, the purpose of this exploratory study is to clarify the factors affecting residents' perceptions by using semistructured interviews to examine residents’ perceptions of tourism development. Moreover, this study uses the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) to analyze the implications of these perceptions of border destinations. The next section describes the destination, the ZMET, and the semistructured interviews. Subsequent sections show the results from ZMET. The last section discusses the results, policy implications, and future research prospects. Materials and methods Destination Lujiang (Fig. 1 ) is a small village located in Dandong city, Liaoning Province, China, with a population of approximately 2000 residents. It is located southeast of the Yalu River facing North Korea. In recent decades, two-thirds of the land in this village has been used to raise cattle, sheep, fish, and cows. Since 2008, Lujiang has started to develop tourism. The village was initially discovered by a group of photographers who found a flower field of more than 50,000 square meters, took photographs of the flowers and uploaded them to the internet, attracting many tourists to visit the village. With the development of tourism, it was discovered that Lujiang has not only flower fields but also a special geographical location. As a border destination, Lujiang is only a dozen meters away from China to North Korea, and the nearest place can even greet North Koreans directly. Famous for the 'Hermit Kingdom', North Korea remains largely isolated from other countries and is known as one of the most mysterious countries in the world 27 . Therefore, for cautious and curious tourists, Lujiang is an ideal destination where foreign scenery is not needed to land North Korea. In addition, since the flower fields in the village only exist in summer and are seasonal, exotic and North Korean characteristics have replaced flower fields as the most important new tourist attraction in Lujiang, and the village has become an emerging tourist destination in China in recent years. Data collection was conducted in August and September 2023, when the annual tourist season in Lujiang had passed, the number of tourists gradually decreased, and local residents had enough time to be interviewed by the ZMET. The researcher is a resident of Dandong, where Lujiang is located, and can understand the dialect spoken by the residents of Lujiang. The researcher conducted a related study in Lujiang in 2018 and 2021 and conducted interviews similar to those of ZMET. Mainland China established a strict control policy for COVID-19 from 2020 to 2022, and some of the participants were interviewed online, which did not yield satisfactory data in previous interviews. Nonetheless, the contact details of some of the residents were left behind in the process, through which the snowball sampling technique was used to recruit subjects for this study. In the first part of the survey, before the ZMET, to ensure reliability and validity, participants were requested to complete a form named 'PII'. The PII (Personal Involvement Inventory) scale tests the involvement of each participant based on reliability and validity to ensure that the participants are qualified samples 28 . The PII uses 10 seven-point questions to test the participants, with the highest score being 70 and the lowest being 10; the higher the score is, the more involved the subjects are in the research. In this study, item descriptions of lexically opposite items on the PII scale were equally distributed at both ends of the seven-point scale to increase the conscientiousness of test participants' responses (Table 1 ), thus ensuring validity for the participants. Finally, a total of 30 participants were selected to participate in the ZMET. The average score of their PII is 58, indicating that they have a high understanding of Lujiang tourism. After PII, the researcher asked for basic information about the participants, including age, education, occupation, etc., and ZMET was strictly carried out. ZMET ZMET is derived from the synthesis of approaches drawn from the neurobiology, psychoanalysis, and psychology literature 29 . It was proposed by Harvard Business School Professor Gerald Zaltman, who first used this technique for market research 30 . In the 1990s, during a trip to Nepal, Zaltman gave the cameras to the residents and allowed them to take photos, and it was found that Nepalis people were reluctant to show their feet on pictures. After asking for residents, Zaltman was told that Nepalis think barefoot is a symbol of poverty, so the people in the photos are trying to conceal their feet. Inspired by this, Zaltman began to explore ZMET based on pictures. ZMET uses a ten-step one-to-one interview approach based on pictures collected or taken by participants. Before the ZMET,participants provided verbal informed consent forms. Approximately one week before the interview, the participants were instructed to collect or take between 8 and 12 pictures that could convey their thoughts and feelings about the topic under investigation. At the same time, there is no strict restriction on the source of the pictures; they can be either taken by the participants themselves or from the internet, newspapers, magazines, or books, but these pictures must be able to express the participants' thoughts on the research topic 31 . ZMET consists of 10 steps. The first step is named storytelling. Participants are invited to tell the story behind each picture they brought to the interview. During storytelling, themes and perspectives related to the impact of tourism can be interpreted. At this step, the interviewers mainly focused on the reasons why the pictures were selected. Before the interviews, the interviewers always started with the following questions: "Could you please describe this picture for me? ", "Why did you choose this picture?" and "How does this picture relate to your thoughts and feelings?" The goal of this step is to identify important metaphors and find relevant concepts. After all the pictures have been told, step 2 requires the participants to describe the missing pictures. "Missing pictures" are the pictures that participants thought they could express their opinions but could not bring them to the interview. Step 3 is called "classification". In this step, participants are obliged to classify the pictures according to their standards, explain the reasons, and give new descriptions or labels to different categories. Step 4 is one of the most important steps in ZMET, and this step is a process of concept extraction. Generally, concept extraction is carried out by the Kelly Repertory Grid (KRG) or Laddering Theory (LM) 32,33 . Once the participants' meaning is well understood, the interviewer uses laddering theory to see how the ideas expressed are related to other self-relevant consequences and concepts 34 . The interviews stopped when the researcher felt a sense of data saturation and richness. Then, the interviewers extracted concepts from the pictures' metaphor and connected the concepts of the interviewer with the method of destination chain. When a new construct was generated, the interviewers used LM to further the interviews until new constructs were no longer generated. This step ensures that the hidden relational constructs are extracted. In step 5, participants are asked to select the most representative picture, which should be closely related to the research topic. In addition, step 5 included the elaboration of metaphors, strengthening the meaning of the pictures, and further extending the participants' thoughts. Step 6: “opposite pictures”. In this step, participants are asked to describe pictures that might depict the opposite of the research topics. This step uses negative cases to evaluate trustworthiness. Moreover, it can extend the frame of previous pictures in different directions, which can help interviewers understand deep feelings 35 . In step 7, participants are asked to use other nonvisual senses (sound, smell, taste, touch, and feeling) to express the research topic, eliciting metaphors via other senses in addition to the visual. In step 8, the participants named the 'cognitive mental map', and according to the above steps, they extracted various constructs, connected them, and drew the mental maps. During the drawing of the maps, the participants were asked to identify whether the constructs accurately described their feelings and thoughts. In step 9, the interviewers reordered the pictures provided by each participant. After reordering, the interviewers used pictures and video software such as Photoshop and Premiere to create a video. Then, the participants reviewed the video and accompanied it with a short paragraph describing the topic. In this study, since step 9 is relatively time-consuming, interviewers continued communicating with the participants through WeChat (the most commonly used chat app in mainland China) after the interviews were over and agreed on a time to ask the participants to examine and analyze the videos, either online or offline. Creating a consensus map is the final step of ZMET. A consensus map can vividly present all participants' views. Its constituent elements are called 'constructs'. Zaltman noted that each consensus map should meet the following 3 requirements: ( 1 ) at least 25 constructs; ( 2 ) each construct in the consensus map should be mentioned by at least one-third of the participants mentioned in the mental map or interview; and ( 3 ) every connection between 2 constructs in the consensus map should be mentioned by at least one-quarter of the participants 31 . According to the above conditions, the interviewers repeatedly analyzed the data of all the recordings, texts, and pictures obtained and divided the constructs into 3 categories, namely, 'original', 'related' and 'final', to construct a consensus map. Statement We confirm that the method was performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations, and method was carried out in accordance with relevant ZMET. Ethics declarations This study was reviewed and approved by the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (23WLY69). Participants provided verbal informed consent forms. During the interview, one researcher asked questions and the other researcher recorded participants' responses. Therefore, the data in this study mainly consists of text, images, and videos. The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Consent to participate/consent to publication All participants consented to their anonymous data being published in peer-review journals during their informed consent. Results Profile of participants The participants' profiles were consistent with those of men (60.0%) and women (40.0%). Nearly two-thirds of the participants were between 41 and 65 years old. Most of the participants (73.3%) had been living in Lujiang for more than 20 years. More than half of the participants (56.7%) had completed junior high school. A total of 63.3% of the participants were employed related to tourism, while the rest had jobs unrelated to tourism. The largest percentage of participants (86.7%) earned between ¥50,000 and ¥100,000 (nearly $ 7,000 to $ 14,000) every year, similar to the average annual income of Lujiang ( $ 10,000). Picture analysis Photographing plays various roles in travel, such as proving the presence of a tourist at a destination 36 , and it is also important to destination residents. People often express their ideas in words; in their brain, these thoughts are mostly presented in the form of pictures, and as the closest sense to the pictures, vision is the most important. Compared with other senses, vision is more vivid. Therefore, pictures have unique advantages in analyzing the deep feelings of subjects 37 . Photographs and pictures have a unique advantage in digging into the deep inner thoughts and feelings of the research object, which can deeply reveal people's innermost thoughts and feelings. During the ZMET, 30 participants provided a total of 262 pictures—30 "missing pictures" and 30 "opposite pictures"—for a total of 322 pictures. These pictures can be divided into 10 categories (Table 1 ). Table 1 Categories and number of pictures provided by 30 participants No. Category Frequency 1 Scenery 78 2 Tourists 56 3 Tourism-Related Industries 37 4 Tourism Revenue 35 5 Community Participation 28 6 Border 26 7 Environmental Damage 21 8 Tourism Suggestions 20 9 Infrastructure 18 10 Others 3 Of the 10 categories, the least numerous category, "Other", has relatively dispersed content and is therefore grouped separately. Apart from "Others", the remaining 9 categories can be further divided into 3 groups. The first group is an introduction to Lujiang, including "Scenery", "Border" and "Infrastructure". The "Scenery" category has the largest number of pictures and mainly contains pictures of Lujiang scenery, such as landscapes and canola flowers (a kind of beautiful yellow flower growing in Lujiang). On average, each participant provided at least 2 pictures related to scenery, which is both an important tourism resource in Lujiang and the picture that residents consider most closely related to tourism. The "border" pictures show the special geographical location of Lujiang and contain content related to North Korea. "Infrastructure" focuses on the local traffic situation in Lujiang. The number of pictures in these 2 categories ranked low, indicating that in addition to natural scenery, some participants were also concerned about the special geographical location of Lujiang and the problems of tourism infrastructure. The second group is the impacts of tourism, including "tourists", "tourism-related industries" and "environmental damage". The "tourists" category has the second highest number of pictures, which are mostly about noise, garbage and conflicts between tourists and residents. The contributors to the "related industries" category were mainly residents engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture. These participants believe that the development of tourism has taken over land that was originally used for other industries and that the development of other industries has been hindered. "Environmental damage" refers to the damage caused by tourism development to the local environment, including garbage and air pollution. Combining the content of the pictures in the "tourists" and "tourism-related industries" categories, it can be seen that participants believe that tourism in Lujiang has had mainly negative impacts. The third category, "destination participation", "tourism income", and "suggestions", is the response of residents to tourism. "Destination participation" is the role of residents in tourism development, and the pictures include residents maintaining order for tourists and residents' participation in tourism planning in Lujiang. The "tourism revenue" pictures were provided by residents who work in the tourism industry. Participants believe that tourism has increased economic income, but due to the impact of COVID-19, income has decreased, and people have not yet recovered to their initial income before COVID-19. The "tourism suggestions" included specific suggestions and perceptions from residents through pictures. At ZMET, most participants expressed their views on Lujiang's future, and they were willing to participate in the tourism development process; however, limited access to participation also reduced residents' motivation to a certain extent. Consensus map During the 10 steps of the ZMET, interviewers obtained mental maps from every participant. Based on the number of participants, common structures mentioned by more than 10 participants were selected for this study. The idea of drawing a consensus map comes from HVM (hierarchical value map). HVM is defined as "a graphical representation of a set of means–end chains which can be thought of as an aggregate cognitive structure map" 38 . In this study, the main role of HVM is to summarize the findings of laddering theory and to divide the constructs into 3 categories. Together, "Each construct should be mentioned by at least one third of participants (one third of 30)" and "Relationships between constructs should be mentioned by at least one quarter of respondents (one quarter of 30)". A total of 42 constructs were ultimately obtained, including 10 original constructs, 21 related constructs, and 11 final constructs (Table 2 ). The original constructs are located at the top of the consensus map and are the objects of perception. These constructions are the main elements presented in the visual metaphor, provoking residents to think about tourism. The related constructs are the result of residents' cognition and experience through the perceived object, and they are the bonds between various constructs located in the middle part of the consensus map, which are used to describe the situation and created through the original constructs; they are also the further expression of residents' thoughts about tourism. The final constructs are the deeper reasons and values behind the perception, which are located at the bottom of the consensus map. The final constructs are the results of the original and related constructs and are the final representation of tourism by the residents as presented by all the constructs. The arrow direction in the consensus map mainly follows causal relationships. A consensus map was drawn based on the abovementioned constructs (Fig. 2 ). Residents' views were categorized into 4 themes by the consensus map. Table 2 Construct statistics Original construct construct n construct n construct n construct n North Korea 27 development 24 tourism 30 COVID-19 26 environment 21 Village committee 16 picture 22 Lujiang 30 tourist 28 resident 29 destination 18 Related construct canola flower 17 border 23 noise 19 garbage 20 community participation 11 investment 12 hotel and restaurant 21 gaolihuopen 12 transport 16 fresh air 13 agriculture 12 animal husbandry 14 Gap 20 mountain and water 17 perception 21 fish and chicken 13 Internet 12 seasonality 19 commercialization 21 geographical position 18 influence 26 price 15 contradiction 15 quarrel 13 Final construct beautiful scenery 30 exotic 13 tourist quality 27 job 21 broaden horizons 14 environment damage 22 planning 16 suggestion 21 rich and poor 18 income 25 food 19 In the construct box, n equals the number of participants who mentioned the construct Theme A: Residents are proud of Lujiang's rich tourism resources This theme consists of 3 final constructs: "beautiful scenery", "food", and "exotic". ( 1 ) Construct "beautiful scenery". The pictures about Lujiang's scenery had the greatest number of pictures in the picture analysis. All 30 participants expressed their feelings about the scenery, which indicates that residents identify with the beauty of the local scenery and that the scenery is an important factor in attracting tourists. The constructs linked to the scenery mainly included "picture", "canola flowers", and "fresh air". These constructs introduce the origin of tourism in Lujiang, where photographers discovered Lujiang's canola flowers and uploaded the pictures to the internet so that more people chose Lujiang as the destination. Participant No. 2 provided a photo of canola flowers, and in "storytelling", she mentioned the role of the canola flowers and said it was the tourists attracted by the flowers and scenery that contributed to the tourism Lujiang's tourism. ( 2 ) Construct "food". Pictures of food are classified as 'scenery' in the picture analysis because most of the participants usually mentioned local food when they talked about the scenery. The constructs associated with food mainly included "restaurants and hotels", "fish and chicken", and "gaolihuopen" (a hot pot originating in North Korea). Restaurants and hotels are the main places where food is served. Lujiang's food mainly consists of natural vegetables, chicken and fish, and the local specialty "gaolihuopen". In ZMET, participant No. 9 mentioned that "apart from the beautiful scenery, the food is also praised by tourists, a lot of tourists come to Lujiang for the purpose of tasting wild fish. The air in Lujiang is clean and fresh, and the environment is pleasant; fish and chicken here are also more delicious. The construct "food" was mentioned by 19 participants, which shows that food also promotes tourism in Lujiang. ( 3 ) The construct "exotic". Compared to the previous 2 constructs, "exotic" was mentioned by only 13 participants. The constructs associated with exotics mainly include "geographical location", "border", and "North Korea". Although less than half of the participants mentioned the construct "exotic", these participants were confident in the exotic character of Lujiang and believed that things related to North Korea would replace traditional scenery and food in the future. No. 30, who owns a restaurant, believes that food is not the most specialized tourist resource in Lujiang, as the same food can be eaten elsewhere in China, but seeing North Korea is unique to Lujiang. Although not shared by the majority of participants, exotic tourism is also an important tourism resource in Lujiang. Theme B: Tourism changes residents' lives This theme consists of 3 final constructs: "job", "income" and "broaden horizons". The pictures related to the 3 constructs mainly belong to the category of "tourism income" in the picture analysis. ( 1 ) The construct "job". A total of 21 participants mentioned the "job", the majority of whom were residents working in tourism and related industries. Constructs related to work, such as "community participation", "agriculture" and "animal husbandry," suggest that tourism provides new work opportunities for residents who are originally unemployed or engaged in other industries. Participant no. 14, who used to farm in Lujiang and now runs a hotel, believes that although running a hotel is harder than farming, he has gained more income, and in his opinion, the development of tourism has provided more jobs for them. ( 2 ) Constructing "income". The constructs related to income mainly include "price", "investment" and "COVID-19". Economic income has always been an important factor in measuring residents' attitudes in studies of destination residents' perceptions. Although not directly involved in tourism, some residents engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry believe that the cattle and goats they raise can provide ingredients for restaurants and that the crops they grow can be sold to tourists. Moreover, they can also earn extra income as temporary waiters in hotels when there is a shortage of waiters during the peak tourist season. A total of 25 participants in the ZMET mentioned the construct of "income", but some residents mentioned that their income had decreased during COVID-19 and that excessive investments had even pushed them into poverty. Therefore, the mention of the construct "income" does not necessarily indicate that the participants receive financial income from tourism; there have also been complaints about the decrease in income from tourism in recent years. ( 3 ) Constructing "broadened horizons". Lujiang is located in a remote border area, the older residents of the village have hardly ever left their home, and their knowledge of the outside world is mainly through television and mobile phones. Tourism brings jobs to these residents, who can perform simple labor or sell the agricultural products they grow. In the process of communicating with tourists, residents broaden their horizons and make new friends. A total of 14 participants mentioned the construct "broaden horizons", which is linked to the constructs "resident" "influence" and "perception". These constructs explain the reasons for horizon broadening. For residents, tourism development provides a platform for them to learn about the world, improving their abilities and realizing their self-worth, making a difference to their lives. Theme C: Residents begin to rationally realize Lujiang tourism This theme includes 3 final constructs: "tourist quality", "environmental damage" and "rich and poor". Compared to the final constructs in Theme B, Theme C's construct focuses on the negative impacts of tourism. ( 1 ) Construct "tourist quality". Pictures related to this construct belong to the category of "tourists" in the picture analysis, and the content is about tourists' uncivilized behavior. The constructs related to tourist quality mainly include "tourists", "garbage" and "noisy". For destinations, an increase in the number of tourists brings garbage and noise pollution, which not only affects the image of the destination but also may disturb the ecological balance of Lujiang. In "storytelling", participant No. 17 mentioned content related to tourist quality, which indicates that she has a strong perception of tourist quality. Twenty-seven participants talked about tourist quality; in their opinion, tourists causing pollution in Lujiang and hindering the sustainable development of tourism are important problems for Lujiang. ( 2 ) Construct "environmental damage". Environmental damage is the result of the constructs of garbage and noise, and the pictures in the category of "environmental damage" in the picture analysis are mainly the rubbish brought by tourists. The constructs associated with environmental damage include "environmental", "air" and "Lujiang". Participant No. 6 mentioned in ZMET that tourism development has led to serious environmental damage in Lujiang. The area for tourism is becoming increasingly larger, but the area where sheep and cattle can be grazed has decreased, and now there is no place to raise sheep or cattle. Twenty-two participants talked about environmental damage; despite residents gaining economic income from tourism, tourism has also had numerous negative impacts at the same time, and the environmental damage cannot be compensated for by money. Residents believe that the environmental protection of Lujiang requires the joint efforts of multiple stakeholders. ( 3 ) Construct "rich and poor". Eighteen participants mentioned this construct, and the constructs linked to rich and poor people mainly included "contradiction", "quarrel", and "gap". Tourism development has contributed to an increase in the income of local residents in Lujiang, but it is those engaged in tourism who receive economic income. As many residents have run restaurants and hotels, this has led to price competition in catering and accommodations, an increase in conflicts between residents, and even fights over tourists, destroying the originally harmonious relationships between Lujiang residents. Although residents are gradually escaping poverty through tourism, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening further. Those who are engaged in tourism earn higher incomes, while those who do not have money to invest in tourism can only work in low-paying jobs. The widening gap between the rich and the poor is the most serious negative impact of tourism development according to the participants. Theme D: Residents look forward to better Lujiang tourism in the future Theme D consists of 2 final constructs: "planning" and "suggestion". The pictures related to the 2 constructs mainly belong to the "tourism suggestion" category in the photo analysis. ( 1 ) Construct "Planning". Constructs related to the plan mainly include "village committee", "transport" and "development". The village committee is the local government and can play an important role in infrastructure development, publicity, and environmental protection; it can also determine the future direction of tourism in Lujiang. Participant No. 4 believes that the village committee should play an important role and that the village committee should cooperate with the tourism company to lead local residents to develop tourism together to increase the popularity of Lujiang, and local residents can also obtain more economic income. Sixteen participants mentioned constructing traffic, which is considered to be an important factor hindering future tourism development. Many tourists abandoned their plans to visit Lujiang because the village can only be accessed by long-distance buses and self-driving, and the roads are rough, taking up to 5 hours each way. The tourism plan for Lujiang should be revised to address the current problems. Residents believe that rational planning will further promote tourism development, and they are confident about the future of Lujiang. ( 2 ) Construct "suggestion". The main constructs associated with the recommendations included "seasonality", "commercialization" and "Internet". These constructs expressed residents' options for Lujiang tourism. One participant who works on the village committee believes that most tourists visit Lujiang in the summer, when the canola flowers are in bloom, and that there are few tourists in the season when there are no flowers. Lujiang should find tourism resources that attract tourists throughout the year. Twenty-one participants mentioned the construct "commercialization" and believed that the overcommercialization of tourism is also a problem in Lujiang. While price competition has led to a breakdown in resident relations, overcommercialization affects the visitor experience and damages the image of the destination. A total of 12 participants in the ZMET mentioned the use of the internet as a new means of promoting Lujiang, which they believed would make Lujiang more accessible and thus attract more tourists. As hosts, residents love their hometown, and it is crucial to be involved in tourism planning and management 39 . This will make them more supportive of tourism development. Conclusions and discussion In 1987, a cross-border travel route from Dandong to Sinuiju (the fourth largest city in North Korea) became the beginning of North Korea and Chinese border tourism. In the past 40 years, tourism has promoted the development of China and helped residents eliminate poverty, but at the same time, it has caused many problems. ZMET was used to analyze destination residents’ perceptions of tourism in a border village. ZMET was used to analyze destination residents’ perceptions of tourism in a border village. This indicates that the ZMET can be an appropriate approach for explaining residents’ perceptions of tourism development. From the consensus map, we obtained 4 themes formed by the constructs. Residents who are proud of Lujiang’s rich tourism resources recognize their hometowns as suitable for tourism because of its natural beauty, food, exotic features and other tourism resources. Tourism changes residents’ lives, showing that tourism has enabled residents to obtain new jobs and more economic income and has broadened their horizons. The “residents begin to realize Lujiang tourism rationally” perspective shows that economic factors do not determine residents’ perceptions and that residents also value the negative impacts of tourism development compared to economic income, such as garbage and noise brought by tourists, and widen the gap between rich and poor people among local residents, which destroys the original harmonious relationship between neighbors. The “Residents look forward to better Lujiang tourism in the future” shows that despite the many negative impacts, residents are still looking forward to the future development of tourism, and they believe that tourism in Lujiang should be reasonably planned and provide their own suggestions. The contribution of this study Is ”he n’vel application of the ZMET. By this approach, we can observe the formation process of residents’ perceptions. ZMET is mainly used in the field of marketing, and scholarly articles featuring ZMET are published in the Chinese language and are not widely available outside of China 29 . There are close relationships among the constructs extracted by ZMET. The constructs are connected by 2 or more connections, which restrict each other and logically form causal or juxtaposition relationships. The logical paths formed by linking the constructs are the main framework of the stories told by participants, which can analyze the metaphorical parts of the pictures. Residents’ attitudes and perceptions are important because residents are directly affected by tourism-related activities in their ‘backyard’ 40 . In terms of residents’ perceptions, Lujiang should replace the seasonal canola flower with the exotic style of North Korea as the main tourism attraction. The flowering period of canola flowers is short, but North Korea style and culture conditions are common, regardless of the season. Moreover, the local government should encourage residents engaged in traditional agriculture and residents engaged in tourism to cooperate to achieve a win‒win situation. In the future, Lujiang should be well planned, and the government should take advantage of its border tourism resources to promote tourism development and invest in transportation. Limitations and future research This study also has several limitations that should be considered. First, although we used multiple strategies to enhance trustworthiness, the 30 participants included in our survey did not represent all the residents' perceptions of other border destinations. Second, this study lacked accurate longitudinal tourism data (e.g., tourism arrivals totals by sector and season), and the participants in our study were aged 41 to 65 years. Future research should also focus on residents under 40 years old. Compared to other studies that have examined residents in different destinations with different levels of tourism development 41 , future research is necessary to obtain data from several communities to compare people's perceptions of different destinations, which can improve reliability. Moreover, one strength of the ZMET is the incorporation of a variety of techniques from other disciplines, such as psychology, art theory, and marketing. By ZMET, we can obtain deep thoughts from pictures that participants cannot describe in words, and these thoughts may be the reason why residents hold certain opinions. In this study, the ZMET is applied to tourism research to analyze residents' tourism perceptions in border areas, but the ZMET with 10 steps may involve complicated steps in the specific implementation process, and it is difficult for researchers to find a larger number of participants to participate in the ZMET. In future research, the ZMET can be optimized appropriately to obtain more samples. ZMET can also be combined with other theories, such as SET and social representation theory (SRT), to better understand residents' perceptions of tourism. Declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Author Contribution T.Y.L drafted the manuscript. T.Y.L. conceived and conducted the experiments. T.Y.L. analyzed the results. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. Data Availability The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the fact that the original data involves specific information such as the names and addresses of the participants but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. References Crick M. Representations of international tourism in the social-sciences - sun, sex, sights, savings, and servility. Annual Review of Anthropology. 18:307–44 (1989). 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Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism. 19(1):1–30 (2018). Li FX, Zhang GJ. Border resident perceptions of sanctions and tourism: A case study of North Korea. Tourism Management Perspectives. 38:10 (2021). Allen LR, Hafer HR, Long PT, Perdue RR. Rural residents' attitudes toward recreation and tourism development. Journal of travel research. 31(4):27–33 (1993). Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4371675","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":317760213,"identity":"cd7614af-b3c3-48ec-a95b-0509ce70a8e9","order_by":0,"name":"Yuelin Tan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAz0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACNmb+hw8+/rOp55c/fIA4LXzsPMyGM9jSEiRnsCUQp0WOn4dNmoPtcILBDR4DYh3Ge0CagedwnsHtno833jDYyek2ENTCl2BcIJFeLHnn7GbLOQzJxmYHCGphMEieYWDN2Hcgd5s0D8OBxG3EaDnMk8DM2HAg5xmxWngMm3kOOCdOuJHDRqwWtmTGmQ1pxpI9x4wt5xgQ4Rf5/sPHf3xssJHjZ29+eONNhZ0cQS0oQILYqEHWQqqOUTAKRsEoGBEAAFQTP2QsewFhAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Ludong University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuelin","middleName":"","lastName":"Tan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-05 12:41:05","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4371675/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4371675/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":59216659,"identity":"eab832f7-98eb-476c-ac8f-fd0ab1ed0554","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-27 19:08:35","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":175249,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMap of the destination\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNote: The map was retrieved from http://bzdt.ch.mnr.gov.cn/.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4371675/v1/643fc05b13dd954afb549502.jpeg"},{"id":59217320,"identity":"e7d2ddd7-e8c3-475c-8801-ca324e32042c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-27 19:16:35","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":718486,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eMap of the perceived consensus on tourism development of residents in Lujiang\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the construct box, n equals the number of participants who mentioned the construct\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4371675/v1/5f454890460b5c7256e7638c.jpeg"},{"id":59985081,"identity":"ba9596cf-6ec0-4f69-a3d9-d927857a7cfe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-07-10 07:07:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1419171,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4371675/v1/7274c430-98c7-4320-b332-d3683aac8f7e.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Border destination residents' perceptions towards tourism development: the case of Lujiang, China","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eOnce a community becomes a destination, the lives of its residents will be affected by tourism, and residents' perceptions of tourism are likely to be important planning and policy considerations for successful marketing, development, and future tourism projects. While tourism has positive impacts on destinations, it also has negative impacts, such as increased living costs and environmental pollution, so tourism is also vividly described as 'evil'\u003csup\u003e1\u003c/sup\u003e. In fact, positive impacts are usually obtained by a small number of people, while most residents suffer from negative impacts and receive fewer benefits, leading to changes in residents' perceptions of tourism, and perceptions usually determine residents' motivations and opportunities\u003csup\u003e2,3\u003c/sup\u003e. According to social exchange theory (SET), positive tourism perceptions promote residents' support for tourism, while negative tourism perceptions hinder tourism development\u003csup\u003e4,5\u003c/sup\u003e. However, SET focuses on the exchange of economic benefits and the impact of economic factors on residents' emotions; thus, residents who receive economic income from tourism have a more optimistic attitude toward tourism\u003csup\u003e6\u003c/sup\u003e. In addition, most SET studies are quantitative, and SETs always emphasize the analysis of economic factors; other factors, such as place attachment and destination tourism life cycles, are easily overlooked\u003csup\u003e7\u003c/sup\u003e. Therefore, these factors should also be considered when exploring the perceptions of residents, and new methods need to be used to understand the underlying reasons for perceptions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn regard to the tourism literature, destination residents' perceptions usually overlap with a number of themes, such as residents' attitudes, satisfaction, opinions, and engagement behaviors\u003csup\u003e8,9\u003c/sup\u003e. These factors give residents an important role as stakeholders in local tourism development\u003csup\u003e10,11\u003c/sup\u003e. Research on residents' perceptions of different types of destinations has focused on rural tourism, ecotourism, cruise tourism, etc.\u003csup\u003e12\u0026ndash;14\u003c/sup\u003e. As \"lived spaces challenged and inspired\" by international boundaries, tourism in border areas has a unique geopolitically advantageous character compared to the destinations mentioned above.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSince the 1990s, in the context of economic globalization, border blocks have weakened, various types of trade activities have increased, and border tourism has developed rapidly\u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003e. Tourism can function as a viable strategy for border areas to overcome border-related barriers. Many border areas regard tourism as the most important way to promote local economic development, and tourism has a potential effect on innovation to promote the development of border areas\u003csup\u003e16\u003c/sup\u003e. With the rapid development of border tourism and increasing numbers of countries and areas, border tourism has attracted the attention of many scholars and has gradually become one of the key areas in tourism research\u003csup\u003e17\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTimothy discussed the nature of political boundaries in the context of tourism and noted that border town gambling, cross-border shopping, international enclaves, and welcome centers are the new tourism attractions that are beneficial to border tourism\u003csup\u003e18\u003c/sup\u003e. Although border tourism has attracted attention, there has been no unified name for it. Some scholars call this \"cross-border travel\", and some describe it as \"cross-border tourism\" \u003csup\u003e19,20\u003c/sup\u003e. In 2006, Sofield proposed the concept of \"border tourism\", which was adopted by other scholars and has since been used\u003csup\u003e21\u003c/sup\u003e. Research on border tourism over the past 30 years has focused on the basic characteristics of border tourism, the cooperation and conflict of border tourism, the impacts of border tourism on destinations, and border tourism management\u003csup\u003e22\u003c/sup\u003e. However, research on the perceptions of residents of border tourism destinations remains limited, and the complex relationship between tourism and border destination communities needs further attention, especially when these destinations are located in relatively closed areas.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGiven that relevant research is still rare, the purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of residents of a Chinese border village regarding local tourism. The village is located in the northeastern region of China, across a river from North Korea. North Korea has been under international sanctions since the Korean War (1950\u0026ndash;1953) in the 1950s. Sanctions have been accompanied by restrictions on the number of foreigners entering the country, adding to the country's mystique. Tourism provided North Korea with a promising means to gain foreign exchange and promote propaganda\u003csup\u003e23,24\u003c/sup\u003e. China is estimated to be its largest overseas tourism market\u003csup\u003e25,26\u003c/sup\u003e. Apart from Li's studies mentioned above, few scholars have conducted relevant studies on this topic. Accordingly, the purpose of this exploratory study is to clarify the factors affecting residents' perceptions by using semistructured interviews to examine residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions of tourism development. Moreover, this study uses the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) to analyze the implications of these perceptions of border destinations. The next section describes the destination, the ZMET, and the semistructured interviews. Subsequent sections show the results from ZMET. The last section discusses the results, policy implications, and future research prospects.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Materials and methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDestination\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eLujiang (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) is a small village located in Dandong city, Liaoning Province, China, with a population of approximately 2000 residents. It is located southeast of the Yalu River facing North Korea. In recent decades, two-thirds of the land in this village has been used to raise cattle, sheep, fish, and cows. Since 2008, Lujiang has started to develop tourism. The village was initially discovered by a group of photographers who found a flower field of more than 50,000 square meters, took photographs of the flowers and uploaded them to the internet, attracting many tourists to visit the village. With the development of tourism, it was discovered that Lujiang has not only flower fields but also a special geographical location. As a border destination, Lujiang is only a dozen meters away from China to North Korea, and the nearest place can even greet North Koreans directly. Famous for the 'Hermit Kingdom', North Korea remains largely isolated from other countries and is known as one of the most mysterious countries in the world\u003csup\u003e27\u003c/sup\u003e. Therefore, for cautious and curious tourists, Lujiang is an ideal destination where foreign scenery is not needed to land North Korea. In addition, since the flower fields in the village only exist in summer and are seasonal, exotic and North Korean characteristics have replaced flower fields as the most important new tourist attraction in Lujiang, and the village has become an emerging tourist destination in China in recent years.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eData collection was conducted in August and September 2023, when the annual tourist season in Lujiang had passed, the number of tourists gradually decreased, and local residents had enough time to be interviewed by the ZMET. The researcher is a resident of Dandong, where Lujiang is located, and can understand the dialect spoken by the residents of Lujiang. The researcher conducted a related study in Lujiang in 2018 and 2021 and conducted interviews similar to those of ZMET. Mainland China established a strict control policy for COVID-19 from 2020 to 2022, and some of the participants were interviewed online, which did not yield satisfactory data in previous interviews. Nonetheless, the contact details of some of the residents were left behind in the process, through which the snowball sampling technique was used to recruit subjects for this study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the first part of the survey, before the ZMET, to ensure reliability and validity, participants were requested to complete a form named 'PII'. The PII (Personal Involvement Inventory) scale tests the involvement of each participant based on reliability and validity to ensure that the participants are qualified samples\u003csup\u003e28\u003c/sup\u003e. The PII uses 10 seven-point questions to test the participants, with the highest score being 70 and the lowest being 10; the higher the score is, the more involved the subjects are in the research. In this study, item descriptions of lexically opposite items on the PII scale were equally distributed at both ends of the seven-point scale to increase the conscientiousness of test participants' responses (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e), thus ensuring validity for the participants. Finally, a total of 30 participants were selected to participate in the ZMET. The average score of their PII is 58, indicating that they have a high understanding of Lujiang tourism. After PII, the researcher asked for basic information about the participants, including age, education, occupation, etc., and ZMET was strictly carried out.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eZMET\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eZMET is derived from the synthesis of approaches drawn from the neurobiology, psychoanalysis, and psychology literature\u003csup\u003e29\u003c/sup\u003e. It was proposed by Harvard Business School Professor Gerald Zaltman, who first used this technique for market research\u003csup\u003e30\u003c/sup\u003e. In the 1990s, during a trip to Nepal, Zaltman gave the cameras to the residents and allowed them to take photos, and it was found that Nepalis people were reluctant to show their feet on pictures. After asking for residents, Zaltman was told that Nepalis think barefoot is a symbol of poverty, so the people in the photos are trying to conceal their feet. Inspired by this, Zaltman began to explore ZMET based on pictures.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eZMET uses a ten-step one-to-one interview approach based on pictures collected or taken by participants. Before the ZMET,participants provided verbal informed consent forms. Approximately one week before the interview, the participants were instructed to collect or take between 8 and 12 pictures that could convey their thoughts and feelings about the topic under investigation. At the same time, there is no strict restriction on the source of the pictures; they can be either taken by the participants themselves or from the internet, newspapers, magazines, or books, but these pictures must be able to express the participants' thoughts on the research topic\u003csup\u003e31\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eZMET consists of 10 steps. The first step is named storytelling. Participants are invited to tell the story behind each picture they brought to the interview. During storytelling, themes and perspectives related to the impact of tourism can be interpreted. At this step, the interviewers mainly focused on the reasons why the pictures were selected. Before the interviews, the interviewers always started with the following questions: \"Could you please describe this picture for me? \", \"Why did you choose this picture?\" and \"How does this picture relate to your thoughts and feelings?\" The goal of this step is to identify important metaphors and find relevant concepts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAfter all the pictures have been told, step 2 requires the participants to describe the missing pictures. \"Missing pictures\" are the pictures that participants thought they could express their opinions but could not bring them to the interview.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStep 3 is called \"classification\". In this step, participants are obliged to classify the pictures according to their standards, explain the reasons, and give new descriptions or labels to different categories.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStep 4 is one of the most important steps in ZMET, and this step is a process of concept extraction. Generally, concept extraction is carried out by the Kelly Repertory Grid (KRG) or Laddering Theory (LM)\u003csup\u003e32,33\u003c/sup\u003e. Once the participants' meaning is well understood, the interviewer uses laddering theory to see how the ideas expressed are related to other self-relevant consequences and concepts\u003csup\u003e34\u003c/sup\u003e. The interviews stopped when the researcher felt a sense of data saturation and richness. Then, the interviewers extracted concepts from the pictures' metaphor and connected the concepts of the interviewer with the method of destination chain. When a new construct was generated, the interviewers used LM to further the interviews until new constructs were no longer generated. This step ensures that the hidden relational constructs are extracted.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn step 5, participants are asked to select the most representative picture, which should be closely related to the research topic. In addition, step 5 included the elaboration of metaphors, strengthening the meaning of the pictures, and further extending the participants' thoughts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eStep 6: \u0026ldquo;opposite pictures\u0026rdquo;. In this step, participants are asked to describe pictures that might depict the opposite of the research topics. This step uses negative cases to evaluate trustworthiness. Moreover, it can extend the frame of previous pictures in different directions, which can help interviewers understand deep feelings\u003csup\u003e35\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e In step 7, participants are asked to use other nonvisual senses (sound, smell, taste, touch, and feeling) to express the research topic, eliciting metaphors via other senses in addition to the visual.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn step 8, the participants named the 'cognitive mental map', and according to the above steps, they extracted various constructs, connected them, and drew the mental maps. During the drawing of the maps, the participants were asked to identify whether the constructs accurately described their feelings and thoughts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn step 9, the interviewers reordered the pictures provided by each participant. After reordering, the interviewers used pictures and video software such as Photoshop and Premiere to create a video. Then, the participants reviewed the video and accompanied it with a short paragraph describing the topic. In this study, since step 9 is relatively time-consuming, interviewers continued communicating with the participants through WeChat (the most commonly used chat app in mainland China) after the interviews were over and agreed on a time to ask the participants to examine and analyze the videos, either online or offline.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCreating a consensus map is the final step of ZMET. A consensus map can vividly present all participants' views. Its constituent elements are called 'constructs'. Zaltman noted that each consensus map should meet the following 3 requirements: (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) at least 25 constructs; (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) each construct in the consensus map should be mentioned by at least one-third of the participants mentioned in the mental map or interview; and (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) every connection between 2 constructs in the consensus map should be mentioned by at least one-quarter of the participants\u003csup\u003e31\u003c/sup\u003e. According to the above conditions, the interviewers repeatedly analyzed the data of all the recordings, texts, and pictures obtained and divided the constructs into 3 categories, namely, 'original', 'related' and 'final', to construct a consensus map.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eStatement\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e We confirm that the method was performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations, and method was carried out in accordance with relevant ZMET.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eEthics declarations\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e This study was reviewed and approved by the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (23WLY69).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Participants provided verbal informed consent forms. During the interview, one researcher asked questions and the other researcher recorded participants' responses. Therefore, the data in this study mainly consists of text, images, and videos. The data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eConsent to participate/consent to publication\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAll participants consented to their anonymous data being published in peer-review journals during their informed consent.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eProfile of participants\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe participants' profiles were consistent with those of men (60.0%) and women (40.0%). Nearly two-thirds of the participants were between 41 and 65 years old. Most of the participants (73.3%) had been living in Lujiang for more than 20 years. More than half of the participants (56.7%) had completed junior high school. A total of 63.3% of the participants were employed related to tourism, while the rest had jobs unrelated to tourism. The largest percentage of participants (86.7%) earned between ¥50,000 and ¥100,000 (nearly \u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e7,000 to \u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e14,000) every year, similar to the average annual income of Lujiang (\u003cspan\u003e$\u003c/span\u003e10,000).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003ePicture analysis\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003ePhotographing plays various roles in travel, such as proving the presence of a tourist at a destination\u003csup\u003e36\u003c/sup\u003e, and it is also important to destination residents. People often express their ideas in words; in their brain, these thoughts are mostly presented in the form of pictures, and as the closest sense to the pictures, vision is the most important. Compared with other senses, vision is more vivid. Therefore, pictures have unique advantages in analyzing the deep feelings of subjects\u003csup\u003e37\u003c/sup\u003e. Photographs and pictures have a unique advantage in digging into the deep inner thoughts and feelings of the research object, which can deeply reveal people's innermost thoughts and feelings. During the ZMET, 30 participants provided a total of 262 pictures\u0026mdash;30 \"missing pictures\" and 30 \"opposite pictures\"\u0026mdash;for a total of 322 pictures. These pictures can be divided into 10 categories (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCategories and number of pictures provided by 30 participants\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNo.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCategory\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrequency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eScenery\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e78\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTourists\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e56\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTourism-Related Industries\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e37\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTourism Revenue\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e35\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCommunity Participation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBorder\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental Damage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTourism Suggestions\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e9\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eInfrastructure\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOthers\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOf the 10 categories, the least numerous category, \"Other\", has relatively dispersed content and is therefore grouped separately. Apart from \"Others\", the remaining 9 categories can be further divided into 3 groups. The first group is an introduction to Lujiang, including \"Scenery\", \"Border\" and \"Infrastructure\". The \"Scenery\" category has the largest number of pictures and mainly contains pictures of Lujiang scenery, such as landscapes and canola flowers (a kind of beautiful yellow flower growing in Lujiang). On average, each participant provided at least 2 pictures related to scenery, which is both an important tourism resource in Lujiang and the picture that residents consider most closely related to tourism. The \"border\" pictures show the special geographical location of Lujiang and contain content related to North Korea. \"Infrastructure\" focuses on the local traffic situation in Lujiang. The number of pictures in these 2 categories ranked low, indicating that in addition to natural scenery, some participants were also concerned about the special geographical location of Lujiang and the problems of tourism infrastructure.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe second group is the impacts of tourism, including \"tourists\", \"tourism-related industries\" and \"environmental damage\". The \"tourists\" category has the second highest number of pictures, which are mostly about noise, garbage and conflicts between tourists and residents. The contributors to the \"related industries\" category were mainly residents engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture. These participants believe that the development of tourism has taken over land that was originally used for other industries and that the development of other industries has been hindered. \"Environmental damage\" refers to the damage caused by tourism development to the local environment, including garbage and air pollution. Combining the content of the pictures in the \"tourists\" and \"tourism-related industries\" categories, it can be seen that participants believe that tourism in Lujiang has had mainly negative impacts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe third category, \"destination participation\", \"tourism income\", and \"suggestions\", is the response of residents to tourism. \"Destination participation\" is the role of residents in tourism development, and the pictures include residents maintaining order for tourists and residents' participation in tourism planning in Lujiang. The \"tourism revenue\" pictures were provided by residents who work in the tourism industry. Participants believe that tourism has increased economic income, but due to the impact of COVID-19, income has decreased, and people have not yet recovered to their initial income before COVID-19. The \"tourism suggestions\" included specific suggestions and perceptions from residents through pictures. At ZMET, most participants expressed their views on Lujiang's future, and they were willing to participate in the tourism development process; however, limited access to participation also reduced residents' motivation to a certain extent.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eConsensus map\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e During the 10 steps of the ZMET, interviewers obtained mental maps from every participant. Based on the number of participants, common structures mentioned by more than 10 participants were selected for this study. The idea of drawing a consensus map comes from HVM (hierarchical value map). HVM is defined as \"a graphical representation of a set of means\u0026ndash;end chains which can be thought of as an aggregate cognitive structure map\"\u003csup\u003e38\u003c/sup\u003e. In this study, the main role of HVM is to summarize the findings of laddering theory and to divide the constructs into 3 categories. Together, \"Each construct should be mentioned by at least one third of participants (one third of 30)\" and \"Relationships between constructs should be mentioned by at least one quarter of respondents (one quarter of 30)\". A total of 42 constructs were ultimately obtained, including 10 original constructs, 21 related constructs, and 11 final constructs (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). The original constructs are located at the top of the consensus map and are the objects of perception. These constructions are the main elements presented in the visual metaphor, provoking residents to think about tourism. The related constructs are the result of residents' cognition and experience through the perceived object, and they are the bonds between various constructs located in the middle part of the consensus map, which are used to describe the situation and created through the original constructs; they are also the further expression of residents' thoughts about tourism. The final constructs are the deeper reasons and values behind the perception, which are located at the bottom of the consensus map. The final constructs are the results of the original and related constructs and are the final representation of tourism by the residents as presented by all the constructs. The arrow direction in the consensus map mainly follows causal relationships. A consensus map was drawn based on the abovementioned constructs (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). Residents' views were categorized into 4 themes by the consensus map.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eConstruct statistics\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"8\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOriginal construct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econstruct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econstruct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econstruct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econstruct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNorth Korea\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003edevelopment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003etourism\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCOVID-19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenvironment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVillage committee\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epicture\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLujiang\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003etourist\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e28\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eresident\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003edestination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"8\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelated construct\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecanola flower\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eborder\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003enoise\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003egarbage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecommunity participation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003einvestment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ehotel and restaurant\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003egaolihuopen\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003etransport\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efresh air\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eagriculture\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eanimal husbandry\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGap\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003emountain and water\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eperception\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efish and chicken\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eInternet\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eseasonality\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecommercialization\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003egeographical position\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003einfluence\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eprice\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econtradiction\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003equarrel\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"8\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinal construct\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ebeautiful scenery\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eexotic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003etourist quality\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ejob\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ebroaden horizons\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenvironment damage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eplanning\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003esuggestion\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003erich and poor\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eincome\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efood\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the construct box, n equals the number of participants who mentioned the construct\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheme A: Residents are proud of Lujiang's rich tourism resources\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis theme consists of 3 final constructs: \"beautiful scenery\", \"food\", and \"exotic\".\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"beautiful scenery\". The pictures about Lujiang's scenery had the greatest number of pictures in the picture analysis. All 30 participants expressed their feelings about the scenery, which indicates that residents identify with the beauty of the local scenery and that the scenery is an important factor in attracting tourists. The constructs linked to the scenery mainly included \"picture\", \"canola flowers\", and \"fresh air\". These constructs introduce the origin of tourism in Lujiang, where photographers discovered Lujiang's canola flowers and uploaded the pictures to the internet so that more people chose Lujiang as the destination. Participant No. 2 provided a photo of canola flowers, and in \"storytelling\", she mentioned the role of the canola flowers and said it was the tourists attracted by the flowers and scenery that contributed to the tourism Lujiang's tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"food\". Pictures of food are classified as 'scenery' in the picture analysis because most of the participants usually mentioned local food when they talked about the scenery. The constructs associated with food mainly included \"restaurants and hotels\", \"fish and chicken\", and \"gaolihuopen\" (a hot pot originating in North Korea). Restaurants and hotels are the main places where food is served. Lujiang's food mainly consists of natural vegetables, chicken and fish, and the local specialty \"gaolihuopen\". In ZMET, participant No. 9 mentioned that \"apart from the beautiful scenery, the food is also praised by tourists, a lot of tourists come to Lujiang for the purpose of tasting wild fish. The air in Lujiang is clean and fresh, and the environment is pleasant; fish and chicken here are also more delicious. The construct \"food\" was mentioned by 19 participants, which shows that food also promotes tourism in Lujiang.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) The construct \"exotic\". Compared to the previous 2 constructs, \"exotic\" was mentioned by only 13 participants. The constructs associated with exotics mainly include \"geographical location\", \"border\", and \"North Korea\". Although less than half of the participants mentioned the construct \"exotic\", these participants were confident in the exotic character of Lujiang and believed that things related to North Korea would replace traditional scenery and food in the future. No. 30, who owns a restaurant, believes that food is not the most specialized tourist resource in Lujiang, as the same food can be eaten elsewhere in China, but seeing North Korea is unique to Lujiang. Although not shared by the majority of participants, exotic tourism is also an important tourism resource in Lujiang.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheme B: Tourism changes residents' lives\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis theme consists of 3 final constructs: \"job\", \"income\" and \"broaden horizons\". The pictures related to the 3 constructs mainly belong to the category of \"tourism income\" in the picture analysis.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) The construct \"job\". A total of 21 participants mentioned the \"job\", the majority of whom were residents working in tourism and related industries. Constructs related to work, such as \"community participation\", \"agriculture\" and \"animal husbandry,\" suggest that tourism provides new work opportunities for residents who are originally unemployed or engaged in other industries. Participant no. 14, who used to farm in Lujiang and now runs a hotel, believes that although running a hotel is harder than farming, he has gained more income, and in his opinion, the development of tourism has provided more jobs for them.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) Constructing \"income\". The constructs related to income mainly include \"price\", \"investment\" and \"COVID-19\". Economic income has always been an important factor in measuring residents' attitudes in studies of destination residents' perceptions. Although not directly involved in tourism, some residents engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry believe that the cattle and goats they raise can provide ingredients for restaurants and that the crops they grow can be sold to tourists. Moreover, they can also earn extra income as temporary waiters in hotels when there is a shortage of waiters during the peak tourist season. A total of 25 participants in the ZMET mentioned the construct of \"income\", but some residents mentioned that their income had decreased during COVID-19 and that excessive investments had even pushed them into poverty. Therefore, the mention of the construct \"income\" does not necessarily indicate that the participants receive financial income from tourism; there have also been complaints about the decrease in income from tourism in recent years.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) Constructing \"broadened horizons\". Lujiang is located in a remote border area, the older residents of the village have hardly ever left their home, and their knowledge of the outside world is mainly through television and mobile phones. Tourism brings jobs to these residents, who can perform simple labor or sell the agricultural products they grow. In the process of communicating with tourists, residents broaden their horizons and make new friends. A total of 14 participants mentioned the construct \"broaden horizons\", which is linked to the constructs \"resident\" \"influence\" and \"perception\". These constructs explain the reasons for horizon broadening. For residents, tourism development provides a platform for them to learn about the world, improving their abilities and realizing their self-worth, making a difference to their lives.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec14\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheme C: Residents begin to rationally realize Lujiang tourism\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis theme includes 3 final constructs: \"tourist quality\", \"environmental damage\" and \"rich and poor\". Compared to the final constructs in Theme B, Theme C's construct focuses on the negative impacts of tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"tourist quality\". Pictures related to this construct belong to the category of \"tourists\" in the picture analysis, and the content is about tourists' uncivilized behavior. The constructs related to tourist quality mainly include \"tourists\", \"garbage\" and \"noisy\". For destinations, an increase in the number of tourists brings garbage and noise pollution, which not only affects the image of the destination but also may disturb the ecological balance of Lujiang. In \"storytelling\", participant No. 17 mentioned content related to tourist quality, which indicates that she has a strong perception of tourist quality. Twenty-seven participants talked about tourist quality; in their opinion, tourists causing pollution in Lujiang and hindering the sustainable development of tourism are important problems for Lujiang.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"environmental damage\". Environmental damage is the result of the constructs of garbage and noise, and the pictures in the category of \"environmental damage\" in the picture analysis are mainly the rubbish brought by tourists. The constructs associated with environmental damage include \"environmental\", \"air\" and \"Lujiang\". Participant No. 6 mentioned in ZMET that tourism development has led to serious environmental damage in Lujiang. The area for tourism is becoming increasingly larger, but the area where sheep and cattle can be grazed has decreased, and now there is no place to raise sheep or cattle. Twenty-two participants talked about environmental damage; despite residents gaining economic income from tourism, tourism has also had numerous negative impacts at the same time, and the environmental damage cannot be compensated for by money. Residents believe that the environmental protection of Lujiang requires the joint efforts of multiple stakeholders.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"rich and poor\". Eighteen participants mentioned this construct, and the constructs linked to rich and poor people mainly included \"contradiction\", \"quarrel\", and \"gap\". Tourism development has contributed to an increase in the income of local residents in Lujiang, but it is those engaged in tourism who receive economic income. As many residents have run restaurants and hotels, this has led to price competition in catering and accommodations, an increase in conflicts between residents, and even fights over tourists, destroying the originally harmonious relationships between Lujiang residents. Although residents are gradually escaping poverty through tourism, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening further. Those who are engaged in tourism earn higher incomes, while those who do not have money to invest in tourism can only work in low-paying jobs. The widening gap between the rich and the poor is the most serious negative impact of tourism development according to the participants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec15\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheme D: Residents look forward to better Lujiang tourism in the future\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTheme D consists of 2 final constructs: \"planning\" and \"suggestion\". The pictures related to the 2 constructs mainly belong to the \"tourism suggestion\" category in the photo analysis.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"Planning\". Constructs related to the plan mainly include \"village committee\", \"transport\" and \"development\". The village committee is the local government and can play an important role in infrastructure development, publicity, and environmental protection; it can also determine the future direction of tourism in Lujiang. Participant No. 4 believes that the village committee should play an important role and that the village committee should cooperate with the tourism company to lead local residents to develop tourism together to increase the popularity of Lujiang, and local residents can also obtain more economic income. Sixteen participants mentioned constructing traffic, which is considered to be an important factor hindering future tourism development. Many tourists abandoned their plans to visit Lujiang because the village can only be accessed by long-distance buses and self-driving, and the roads are rough, taking up to 5 hours each way. The tourism plan for Lujiang should be revised to address the current problems. Residents believe that rational planning will further promote tourism development, and they are confident about the future of Lujiang.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) Construct \"suggestion\". The main constructs associated with the recommendations included \"seasonality\", \"commercialization\" and \"Internet\". These constructs expressed residents' options for Lujiang tourism. One participant who works on the village committee believes that most tourists visit Lujiang in the summer, when the canola flowers are in bloom, and that there are few tourists in the season when there are no flowers. Lujiang should find tourism resources that attract tourists throughout the year. Twenty-one participants mentioned the construct \"commercialization\" and believed that the overcommercialization of tourism is also a problem in Lujiang. While price competition has led to a breakdown in resident relations, overcommercialization affects the visitor experience and damages the image of the destination. A total of 12 participants in the ZMET mentioned the use of the internet as a new means of promoting Lujiang, which they believed would make Lujiang more accessible and thus attract more tourists. As hosts, residents love their hometown, and it is crucial to be involved in tourism planning and management\u003csup\u003e39\u003c/sup\u003e. This will make them more supportive of tourism development.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eConclusions and discussion\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 1987, a cross-border travel route from Dandong to Sinuiju (the fourth largest city in North Korea) became the beginning of North Korea and Chinese border tourism. In the past 40 years, tourism has promoted the development of China and helped residents eliminate poverty, but at the same time, it has caused many problems. ZMET was used to analyze destination residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions of tourism in a border village. ZMET was used to analyze destination residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions of tourism in a border village. This indicates that the ZMET can be an appropriate approach for explaining residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions of tourism development. From the consensus map, we obtained 4 themes formed by the constructs. Residents who are proud of Lujiang\u0026rsquo;s rich tourism resources recognize their hometowns as suitable for tourism because of its natural beauty, food, exotic features and other tourism resources. Tourism changes residents\u0026rsquo; lives, showing that tourism has enabled residents to obtain new jobs and more economic income and has broadened their horizons. The \u0026ldquo;residents begin to realize Lujiang tourism rationally\u0026rdquo; perspective shows that economic factors do not determine residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions and that residents also value the negative impacts of tourism development compared to economic income, such as garbage and noise brought by tourists, and widen the gap between rich and poor people among local residents, which destroys the original harmonious relationship between neighbors. The \u0026ldquo;Residents look forward to better Lujiang tourism in the future\u0026rdquo; shows that despite the many negative impacts, residents are still looking forward to the future development of tourism, and they believe that tourism in Lujiang should be reasonably planned and provide their own suggestions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe contribution of this study Is \u0026rdquo;he n\u0026rsquo;vel application of the ZMET. By this approach, we can observe the formation process of residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions. ZMET is mainly used in the field of marketing, and scholarly articles featuring ZMET are published in the Chinese language and are not widely available outside of China\u003csup\u003e29\u003c/sup\u003e. There are close relationships among the constructs extracted by ZMET. The constructs are connected by 2 or more connections, which restrict each other and logically form causal or juxtaposition relationships. The logical paths formed by linking the constructs are the main framework of the stories told by participants, which can analyze the metaphorical parts of the pictures. Residents\u0026rsquo; attitudes and perceptions are important because residents are directly affected by tourism-related activities in their \u0026lsquo;backyard\u0026rsquo;\u003csup\u003e40\u003c/sup\u003e. In terms of residents\u0026rsquo; perceptions, Lujiang should replace the seasonal canola flower with the exotic style of North Korea as the main tourism attraction. The flowering period of canola flowers is short, but North Korea style and culture conditions are common, regardless of the season. Moreover, the local government should encourage residents engaged in traditional agriculture and residents engaged in tourism to cooperate to achieve a win‒win situation. In the future, Lujiang should be well planned, and the government should take advantage of its border tourism resources to promote tourism development and invest in transportation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eLimitations and future research\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study also has several limitations that should be considered. First, although we used multiple strategies to enhance trustworthiness, the 30 participants included in our survey did not represent all the residents' perceptions of other border destinations. Second, this study lacked accurate longitudinal tourism data (e.g., tourism arrivals totals by sector and season), and the participants in our study were aged 41 to 65 years. Future research should also focus on residents under 40 years old. Compared to other studies that have examined residents in different destinations with different levels of tourism development\u003csup\u003e41\u003c/sup\u003e, future research is necessary to obtain data from several communities to compare people's perceptions of different destinations, which can improve reliability. Moreover, one strength of the ZMET is the incorporation of a variety of techniques from other disciplines, such as psychology, art theory, and marketing. By ZMET, we can obtain deep thoughts from pictures that participants cannot describe in words, and these thoughts may be the reason why residents hold certain opinions. In this study, the ZMET is applied to tourism research to analyze residents' tourism perceptions in border areas, but the ZMET with 10 steps may involve complicated steps in the specific implementation process, and it is difficult for researchers to find a larger number of participants to participate in the ZMET. In future research, the ZMET can be optimized appropriately to obtain more samples. ZMET can also be combined with other theories, such as SET and social representation theory (SRT), to better understand residents' perceptions of tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":" \u003ch2\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e \u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eT.Y.L drafted the manuscript. T.Y.L. conceived and conducted the experiments. T.Y.L. analyzed the results. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Availability\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the fact that the original data involves specific information such as the names and addresses of the participants but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCrick M. Representations of international tourism in the social-sciences - sun, sex, sights, savings, and servility. Annual Review of Anthropology. 18:307\u0026ndash;44 (1989).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKim K, Uysal M, Sirgy MJ. 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However, current studies on residents' perceptions mainly focus on ecotourism or rural tourism with quantitative methods and pay little attention to residents who are living in border destinations. This paper explores residents' perceptions of tourism development in Lujiang, a small Chinese village on the border between China and North Korea. A survey of 30 semistructured interviews was conducted to examine how various factors influence residents' perceptions of the impacts of tourism. The Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) was used to construct a map of perceived consensus, from which researchers identified 4 themes related to residents' perceptions of tourism. Moreover, this paper provides a new method for analyzing residents' perceptions of tourism development. ZMET might be a better way to obtain metaphorical information or more information from participants.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Border destination residents' perceptions towards tourism development: the case of Lujiang, China","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-06-27 19:08:29","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4371675/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f3fc0cbf-786d-4a72-a135-a70dcd108c8d","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 27th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":33599850,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"},{"id":33599851,"name":"Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-07-10T06:59:26+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-06-27 19:08:29","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4371675","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4371675","identity":"rs-4371675","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}