Breathing Life Into History: How Cultural Heritage‐Based Tourism Performing Arts Shape National Identity

ABSTRACT Despite the growing popularity of cultural heritage‐based tourism performing arts, little is known about how experiential attributes relate to national identity. This research reports three empirical studies that identify core attributes of tourism performing arts and examine their configurational relationships with national identity. Study 1 analyses qualitative materials and identifies six attributes: artistry, enchantment, technological integration, authenticity, edification, and cultural embodiment. Study 2 develops and validates a 24‐item scale. Study 3 uses fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and identifies four sufficient configurations associated with high national identity. Artistry, enchantment, and cultural embodiment emerge as necessary conditions for high national identity, whereas edification, authenticity, and technological integration contribute in configuration‐specific ways. The research extends tourism performing arts research from attractiveness and consumption outcomes to national identity and provides a diagnostic scale for evaluating experiential attributes and informing performance design.