From Emotional Awakening to Cultural Identity: The Emotional–Cognitive Path of Cultural Sustainability in Digital Heritage Tourism

Virtual heritage tourism has become an important way for Generation Z to connect with intangible cultural heritage (ICH). However, current tourism research has predominantly emphasized technology acceptance, with little discussion of how digital experience can be transformed into a deep cultural identity and drive the internal mechanisms of cultural sustainability. This study explores how the emotional–cognitive path of digital tourism experience promotes cultural sustainability, with a special focus on the digital experience space of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Twenty-eight Generation Z travelers were interviewed at the TCM Culture Exhibition Hall, and their narratives were analyzed using a three-stage grounded theory approach in NVivo 15. An emotional–cognitive path model was constructed, including five stages: emotional arousal, emotional immersion, emotional connection, emotional sedimentation, and emotional assessment. Research has found that digital tourism experiences gradually internalize from sensory contact to cultural identity through emotional–cognitive pathways, thereby promoting cultural sustainability and inheritance intentions. This study reveals the mechanism of the emotional evolution in digital heritage tourism, providing a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the sustainable inheritance of ICH.