Beauty and tourists’ sustainable behaviour in rural tourism: a self-transcendent emotions perspective

Abstract

Tourism can contribute to the sustainable development of a rural destination, but tourists’ sustainable behaviours often determine the extent of impact. Thus, exploration of the factors that affect the sustainable behaviours of tourists participating in rural tourism may facilitate the development of sustainable rural tourism. Using self-transcendent emotions as a primary lens, our study proposes a theoretical framework to unpack the relationship between engagement with beauty, self-transcendent emotions, and sustainable behaviour. Based on questionnaire data collected from 437 tourists in Luanchuan, China and analysed using Mplus, results show that engagement with beauty (natural beauty, artistic beauty, and moral beauty) can stimulate tourists’ self-transcendent emotions. The stronger the perception of engagement with beauty, the stronger the self-transcendent emotions, which promote sustainable behaviour. This study offers a theoretical understanding of the sustainable development of rural tourism, showing that beauty of destination attractions can affect sustainable behaviours through the experience of self-transcendent emotions. It also provides management suggestions for the development of rural tourism. By optimising the management of tourists’ engagement with beauty and self-transcendent emotions, rural communities can guide tourists’ behaviour to improve sustainable tourism in rural communities.