Designing the Immersive Spatial Narrative Model for Ethnic Tourism (ISNM-ET): A Case Study on Yao Culture and Museum-based Digital Storytelling

This study addresses the common issues of monotonous narrative structures and superficial cultural interpretation in ethnic museums and cultural tourism exhibitions by proposing the Immersive Spatial Narrative Model for Ethnic Tourism (ISNM-ET). The model aims to provide an immersive design framework that integrates cultural depth with participatory experience. Using the Dujie initiation ritual of the Yao ethnic group in Jinxiu, Guangxi, as the case study, the research combines ethnographic analysis, comparative evaluation of global immersive projects, and multimodal media technologies to develop a reusable three-layer model applicable to both museum exhibitions and tourism experiences. The research progresses through four stages: digital semiotic asset mapping, global case evaluation, triangulation-based model construction, and heuristic evaluation by domain experts. The results demonstrate that ISNM-ET is effective in embedding ritual logic into spatial storytelling and in designing gesture-based cultural interactions, while also showing strong potential for cross-cultural adaptation. Nevertheless, limitations were identified in terms of public user testing and multi-platform performance optimization. Future work will address these limitations through usability studies and hardware improvements, providing a replicable pathway for the digital preservation of ethnic culture and fostering audience engagement in both museum and tourism contexts.