From Stakeholder Value Perceptions to Collaborative Interpretation in World Cultural Heritage Management: Evidence from the Longmen Grottoes (China)

A study on the Longmen Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site in China, reveals significant divergences in value priorities among stakeholders—experts, religious groups, residents, tourism operators, and visitors—and official management discourses. While expert-driven priorities dominate, the perspectives of religious and secular publics are underrepresented. The research integrates mixed-methods approaches, including interviews, surveys, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis, and semantic discourse analysis, to transform stakeholder perceptions into actionable evidence for collaborative heritage interpretation. This empirical approach provides a framework to bridge top-down policy discourses with bottom-up stakeholder data, offering new insights for effective World Cultural Heritage management strategies.

Li, W., Mohidin, H. H. B., & Ali, Z. M. (2026). From Stakeholder Value Perceptions to Collaborative Interpretation in World Cultural Heritage Management: Evidence from the Longmen Grottoes (China). Heritage, 9(6), 239. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage9060239