The Effects of Cultural Heritage Entertainment Program Characteristics on Cultural Identity and Museum Visit Intention : A Case Study of <National Treasure> in China

With the rapid development of globalization, China Central Television (CCTV) recognized the important role of cultural heritage–based entertainment programs in the reconstruction of cultural identity and produced the cultural heritage entertainment program National Treasure in 2017. Following the broadcast of National Treasure (Season 1), the number of online reservations for museum visits increased by approximately 30%. To examine the actual role of cultural heritage entertainment programs in enhancing cultural identity and stimulating cultural heritage tourism, this study conducted a survey of Chinese viewers who had watched National Treasure. The purpose was to explore the effects of viewers’ perceived characteristics of National Treasure on cultural identity and intention to visit related museums. A total of 223 valid questionnaires were collected through an online survey, and SPSS 23.0 and the SPSS PROCESS macro were used for data analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The results identified the key characteristics of cultural heritage entertainment programs as entertainment, informativeness, empathy, performer attractiveness, and aesthetics. Among these characteristics, informativeness, empathy, and aesthetics were found to have significant positive effects on cultural identity, value identity, and museum visit intention, whereas entertainment and performer attractiveness did not show significant effects. Both cultural identity and value identity were found to have significant positive effects on museum visit intention. Furthermore, cultural identity was found to play a partial mediating role in the relationships between informativeness, empathy, aesthetics, and museum visit intention. Based on these findings, this study provides empirical evidence that can serve as foundational data for developing production strategies for cultural heritage entertainment programs aimed at enhancing cultural identity.