Cultural Interaction, Dissemination in Ethnic Tourist Destinations: Cultural Identity and Symbol Construction—A Case Study of the Old Town of Lijiang

Research on cultural interaction and dissemination in ethnic tourist destinations is of great value for protecting and promoting local cultures. To clarify the impacts of cultural identity and symbol construction on cultural dissemination in ethnic tourist destinations, and identify the characteristic elements and key influencing factors of cultural interaction and dissemination in such destinations, this paper uses field investigations, literature reviews, and expert interviews to summarize and classify the relevant elements and factors. The Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) algorithm and cluster analysis are employed to extract keywords and conduct frequency analysis, identifying key influencing factors such as ethnic culture, ethnic music, and ethnic architecture. The Old Town of Lijiang, with its unique Dongba culture, traditional architecture, and Naxi ancient music, has become a paradise for numerous domestic and foreign tourists. Therefore, this paper selects Lijiang as a specific case study. Based on the mechanism of cultural interaction and dissemination, field investigations are carried out to refine cultural symbols and design features, further improving symbol construction. According to the identified influencing factors and symbol construction, participatory cultural experience activities are designed in cooperation with local communities to enhance cultural interaction, dissemination, and identity. In the experimental part, pre-test and post-test designs as well as cross-sectional survey designs are adopted. Domestic and foreign tourists visiting Lijiang are randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group. Through questionnaires, 85% of the tourists who participated in the cultural interaction activities designed in this paper indicated a higher awareness of Lijiang, and 75% were willing to spread Lijiang culture to others. This verifies the positive impacts of ethnic culture, ethnic music, and ethnic architecture on the culture of ethnic tourist destinations.