Role of cultural worldview in predicting heritage tourists’ behavioural intention

Abstract

ABSTRACT Limited attention has been given to the investigation of how cultural worldview (CW) affects tourists’ behavioural intention in heritage tourism sites. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of CW in predicting heritage tourists’ behavioural intention by employing two seminal behaviour models, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The data were collected from 323 heritage travellers who visited Hanok Village in South Korea, where approximately 735 Hanoks (traditional Korean house) were preserved as a popular tourist attraction. The study’s findings demonstrate that tourists’ CW can be an important variable in the prediction and understanding of behavioural intention among heritage tourists and may serve as a proxy for perceived behavioural control. This study also identified that subjective norm was the strongest predictor of behavioural intention among heritage travellers. The overall results support that a positive attitude towards visiting a heritage village, which features Hanoks, strong normative support in their visit intention, and strong CW was positively associated with the behavioural intention of the heritage travellers. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed to enhance the heritage visitors’ attitude, perception, and behavioural intention.