Introduction:This study proposed a model based on Izard's theory of differential emotions to examine the effects of heritage nostalgia on perceived authenticity towards tourist satisfaction and the moderation of self-congruity in Chinese niche tourism. Methods: We examined descriptive statistics to obtain an overview of the sample by using computer program SPSS 22. Then, for evaluation, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed as the appropriate statistical tool, and the statistical approach was implemented using the Smart PLS 3.0 computer program. Results: The results of partial least squares structural equation modelling showed that heritage nostalgia positively affects existential and object-based authenticity. Existential and object-based authenticity positively influences tourist satisfaction. Self-congruity positively moderates the relationship between existential or object-based authenticity and heritage nostalgia.
Conclusion:The linkage mechanism of tourists' psychology and behavior in heritage tourism has been explored, the internal mechanisms such as heritage nostalgia, tourists' authenticity and tourists' satisfaction have been discovered, and the internal mechanism of tourists' consistency of psychology and behavior has also been explained.
Short-distance rural tourism has become a major form of tourism in China in recent years, as problems caused by urbanization emerge and because of the strict restrictions on the flow of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study takes the ten most popular rural tourism destinations in China from 2011 to 2021 as the research object. First, the grounded theory is used to construct the impact model of tourists’ authenticity perception on the sustainable development of rural tourism. The results show that tourists’ perception of rural tourism authenticity includes four dimensions, namely, visual perception, embodied perception, using perception, and interactive perception. With local attachment as the intermediary, authentic perception has a positive effect on the sustainable development of rural tourism, including economic sustainability, ecological sustainability, and cultural sustainability. In the early stage of tourism development, tourists mainly focus on visual authenticity. As tourists are deeply involved in rural tourism, they will pay more attention to interactive authenticity. Then, based on AHP, the measurement index was constructed and a questionnaire survey was conducted among ten villages to verify the effectiveness and universality of the model.
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