Research on the Educational Tourism Development of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Suitability, Spatial Pattern, and Obstacle Factor

Combining the Intangible Cultural Heritage and sustainable development has been an important effort of UNESCO since the new century. This study discusses the suitability of educational tourism development of intangible cultural heritage. On the one hand, it was beneficial to improve the comprehensive quality of students; on the other hand, it was conducive to protecting and rationally developing the cultural heritage and avoiding its loss. In this study, an evaluation index system was established according to the analytic hierarchy process, which included two aspects (i.e., intrinsic value and extrinsic conditions) and 16 indices from four criterion layers (e.g., educational value, recreational value, environmental conditions, and relevant facilities and services). Furthermore, we calculated the development suitability and spatial distribution patterns of intangible cultural heritage for educational tourism. At the same time, using the obstacle degree model, the obstacle degrees of each indicator factor were screened and identified to explore the source of obstacles that restrict the suitability of educational tourism development of ICH. Results showed that: (1) The development suitability of intangible cultural heritage for educational tourism was divided into high suitability, middle suitability, and low suitability. A total of 186 intangible cultural heritages were found in Shandong Province, China. Among these intangible cultural heritages, 60 of 186 (32.26%) were low suitability, with values ranging from 0.326 to 0.460; 86 of 186 (46.24%) were middle suitability, with values of 0.460–0.543, and 40 of 186 (21.50%) were high suitability with a range of 0.543–0.689. (2) The spatial distribution patterns of suitability showed that the development suitability of intangible cultural heritage for educational tourism in Shandong Province exhibited a significantly positive spatial correlation that projects with similar suitability levels were clustered into a group and generally distributed with a direction of “southwest to the northeast”. (3) According to the diagnostic results of obstacle factor analysis, from the perspective of the first level indicator, the obstacle degree of the intrinsic value (A1) of the three levels of suitability of ICH was the highest. Among the second-level indicators, educational value (B1) has always been the biggest obstacle factor affecting the educational tourism of ICH, and the relevance of cultural content (C2), representativeness and typicality of the phenomenon (C3), applicability of teaching cases (C4), and uniqueness or rarity (C5) were the greatest among the three suitability factors.