Cultural Landscape of Tourism Perceptions by Multidimensional Scaling on Wulai Aboriginal Community, Taiwan

Tourism plays an important role in the development of aboriginal towns in Taiwan, and the goal of this study is to explore the impact of tourism on the residents of Wulai, Taipei County, an aboriginal town which for a long time has tourism as its main activity, and the meaning of the changes in their living environment and clashes caused by tourism development on their cultural landscapes. The researchers first interviewed the local people to understand the preliminary perceptions of the residents on the changes of their own living environment, next used the skill of Perceived Projective Mapping to confirm the authenticity of local cultural sight photos, and then classified these photos through Multiple Sorting Method and Q-sort Method. The quantitative and categorical data were obtained from multiple sorting, plus multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis, to summarize the residents’ perceptions on their environment. Q-sort, on the other hand, was used to assess whether the situations in these photos were suitable or not for local development, and also gave the photos a sequence and categorization through their characteristics. With multidimensional scaling analysis, six significant types of cultural landscape groups were found: (1) Industrial production landscapes, (2) public and social landscapes, (3) tourism-affected landscapes, (4) traditional sightseeing landscapes, (5) aboriginal life landscapes, and (6) recreational facilities landscapes. Different perceptions of such landscapes were also based on the three axles: (a) suitability of development, (b) artificial and natural environments, and (c) traditional sightseeing and tourism impacts. In-depth interviews of Wulai residents also played an important role in the classifications. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative research were carried out and used to summarize and analyze local residents’ perceptions on their cultural landscapes and the development of their local environmental perceptions. In the past, traditional sightseeing activities not only increased work opportunities, but also helped the Taiwanese people understand the indigenous culture; it was also a way to respond to the development of local tourism and the social environment through social organizations and groups. Therefore, the development of tourism in aboriginal towns must still be planned with the residents’ environmental perceptions and the significance of their cultural landscapes in mind in order to lead a bottom-up approach to drive forward the sustainable development of the aboriginal communities.