10.3390/su142114084

In recent years, more and more ICH (intangible cultural heritage) has been introduced into scenic areas. As the creators and disseminators of ICH, inheritors are invited to teach ICH skills in these areas. According to the PERMA model (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement), we conducted several interviews with the inheritors of ICH in scenic areas to explore their authentic happiness in terms of the modes by which they inherited and propagated ICH (as individuals, in studios or in companies) and the factors influencing authentic happiness. The findings show that: (1) in general, ICH inheritors reported high levels of authentic happiness in all five dimensions of the PERMA model; (2), for engagement with work, interpersonal relationships, perception of meaning and sense of achievement, the ways in which the inheritors experienced these four dimensions differed greatly depending on the inheritance mode; (3) the main factors affecting the authentic happiness of the inheritors were personal feelings, social attention, policy benefits and economic benefits. (4) inheritors, intangible culture heritage and tourism form an inseparable system, they promote and interact with each other. This paper provides a new perspective for the further development of both ICH inheritors and cultural heritage tourism.