Imagining building process: enhancing tourists’ intention to protect heritage through anatomical depiction

Improper tourism practices threaten global heritage, making enhanced tourist protection awareness key. This article proposes an “anatomical depiction” visual strategy: presenting the internal structure of heritage to stimulate tourists’ simulated building process imagination, strengthen their awe, and thus boost their intention to protect heritage. Formal experiments examined the main effect of anatomical depiction on protective intention, the underlying mechanism, and the moderating effects. The findings contribute to the heritage and sustainability literature, offering managers and policy-makers actionable advice to promote responsible tourist behaviours and cultural heritage conservation, and managerial and social implications are discussed.