ABSTRACT This study investigates how tourist-to-tourist experience congruence influences satisfaction. Grounded in cognitive consistency theory, it proposes that congruence enhances satisfaction by fostering psychological validation. Indulgence, conceptualized as both a cultural value and an individual trait, was examined as a moderator of this relationship, with lower indulgence strengthening the positive effect of congruence. A multi-study design was used: Study 1 analyzed online reviews from New York, Study 2 experimentally replicated the effect, and Study 3 tested shared reality as a mediator. Findings reveal shared reality as a key mechanism linking experience congruence and satisfaction, emphasizing the importance of culturally marketing strategies.

ABSTRACT As robotaxi services become increasingly prevalent across cities and regions, understanding the mechanisms that shape tourists’ willingness to continue using them during travel is essential. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), this study employs structural equation modeling to analyze data from 430 tourists in Wuhan, China, revealing that reduced social contact, perceived comfort, hedonic motivation, and performance expectancy are key drivers of continued robotaxi use. Trust and positive emotions mediate these relationships. These findings extend SET from traditional human–human interactions to human-AI interactions and provide insights for advancing smart mobility in tourism contexts.

ABSTRACT This study developed a religious tourism experience scale based on a literature review, interviews, and surveys conducted with visitors to religious sites in Italy, Nepal, and China. The scale consists of 29 items in four dimensions: religion and culture, visitor facilities and management, economy, and education. The religion and culture dimension showed the strongest correlation with attraction loyalty. The findings enhance understanding of the components of visitor experience at religious sites and have practical implications for guiding service design, assessing visitor experience, and identifying areas for improvement. The results offer management and marketing direction for religious sites.

ABSTRACT The positive impact of tourism on mental health has attracted growing attention; however, the effects of tourism videos remain underexplored. Using facial emotion recognition, this study found that tourism videos significantly enhanced emotional states among mentally healthy, sub-healthy, and depressed individuals. Notably, the sub-healthy group showed the greatest improvement. Mentally healthy participants responded more positively to videos with high environmental unusualness and multi-person interaction, while depressed individuals responded better to low-unusualness environments with voice-over interaction. Sub-healthy individuals showed intermediate patterns. The findings underscore the importance of tailoring tourism video content to individuals’ mental states to more effectively promote emotional regulation.

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of glamping tourism experience on subjective well-being, emotions, satisfaction, and loyalty from the aspect of Experience Economy Theory. Data were collected from 420 Turkish tourists who had experienced glamping tourism and examined by utilizing structural equation modeling. It was determined that education and esthetic experiences in glamping tourism positively affect emotions and satisfaction, esthetic experience influences loyalty, and escapism experience positively influences subjective well-being. Moreover, emotions had a positive influence on subjective well-being and satisfaction, whereas satisfaction positively affects loyalty. Accordingly, various recommendations were provided for researchers and glamping business managers.

ABSTRACT Although Metaverse has emerged as a promising platform for the co-creation experience in tourism, the nature of co-creation experience value and its impact on travel intentions remain underexplored. This study develops and validates the Metaverse Co-Creation Experience Value (MCEV) scale, encompassing utilitarian, cognitive, sensory, and hedonic dimensions. Drawing on the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, the findings reveal that co-creation experience value significantly influences travel inspiration, travel desire, and both physical and virtual travel intentions. The study enriches Metaverse tourism research and offers actionable insights for destination marketers seeking to enhance co-creation experience value and stimulate travel intentions.

ABSTRACT This study examines the revival of experiential-phase well-being from local food experiences in the destination after returning home through memorability and emotions. Self-continuity and emotional recall theories have provided the framework. Data from 408 Turkish tourists filling cross-sectional questionnaires were tested using PLS-SEM. Findings revealed that cognitive and emotional memories are important for hedonic well-being provided by local food experiences to be re-experienced at home as a revived subjective well-being. In addition, individuals exhibit revisiting and post-purchasing behaviors to establish self-continuity in well-being by experiencing the same states and feelings. This process is described as the tourist experience well-being cycle.

ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of character strengths on tourist well-being and the mediating role of character strengths application. While Confucian values offer a unique perspective on well-being in travel, they remain under-explored in the framework of character strengths. Data from 430 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping mediation analysis. Findings revealed that character strengths positively influenced tourist well-being, with zest, bravery, and gratitude showing the strongest connections. Applying creativity, bravery, spirituality, and love of learning significantly mediated this relationship. Integrating character strengths into travel experiences may enhance well-being, offering insights for tourism marketing and human flourishing.

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the space of well-being to investigate the relationships between tourist experience, tourist space of well-being, and well-being. Content analysis and fsQCA are employed to analyze online reviews. Findings indicate that the formation of four dimensions of space of tourist well-being (i.e. space of capability, integrative space, space of security, and therapeutic space) is inseparable from the tourism experiences involving human-to-human relationships, human-to-place relationships, and human-to-object relationships at the destination. These four space dimensions independently and collaboratively stimulate a sense of well-being (primarily manifested in growth and reflection) for people within specific locations.