The Impact of Local Community Participation on Branding Ethnic Tourism Destination: A Case Study of House Renovation in Jiaju Tibetan Village

Abstract

Jiaju Tibetan Village, located in Danba country, Sichuan province, is a newly developed ethic tourism destination. Based on the case study of house renovation and reconstruction, this paper studies the processes of local community participating in tourism development, and analyzes the impacts of local community’s participation on forming destination image as well as destination brand. The study methods applied in this paper are building measurement, questionnaire survey and interview with villagers. The results show that villagers have focused on selecting the icons of Gyarong Tibetan culture during the process of house re-construction and presented these icons to the tourists. It is found out that local community has contributed to Jiaju village by selecting a plain destination image and building a higher quality brand. Also, villagers have improved their living environment through the house reconstruction.