Who is easier to please? A cognitive appraisal mechanism of tourists’ hierarchical experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACT The ethnic ancient cities, as ‘cultural contact zone’, carries a large number of tourists, who may have the same or different cultural background from the host culture. Combining experience economy theory and cognitive appraisal theory, this study constructed a cognitive appraisal mechanism of tourist’ hierarchical experiences in ethnic ancient cities. The PLS-SEM results of 489 tourists in Kashgar Ancient City and 474 tourists in Qingzhou Ancient City reveal that cognate cultural destinations require more effort to please tourists than non-cognate cultural destinations. In non-cognate cultural contexts, the cultural contact has a greater impact on interaction immersion, while in cognate cultural contexts, the authenticity experience has a greater impact on interaction immersion. Moreover, compared to other experiential types, the impact of escapist experience, which has high-level engagement and high-level connection, on destination satisfaction is negatively moderated by destination familiarity. These findings provide practical insights for managers to innovate experiential forms and promote tourists’ revisits in different cultural destinations.