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Health and Wellness Tourists’ Motivation and Behavior Intention: The Role of Perceived Value

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  • Ting Gan

    (School of Geography and Tourism, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang 438000, China
    Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macau 999078, China)

  • Jiansong Zheng

    (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macau 999078, China)

  • Wei Li

    (Education Department, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang 438000, China)

  • Jiaxin Li

    (School of Geography and Tourism, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang 438000, China)

  • Junxian Shen

    (Mental Health Counseling Center, Wuhan Sports University, Wuhan 430079, China)

Abstract

In recent years, with the rapid change of people’s health concept, health and wellness tourism has shown a vigorous development trend. However, existing literature has been lacking on travelers’ behavioral intentions, influenced by their motivation in health and wellness tourism. To fill in this gap, we designed scales of tourists’ behavioral intention and motivation in health and wellness tourism and investigated the aforementioned effects, with a sample of 493 visitors who have traveled in health and wellness tourism. Factor analysis and structural equation models were applied to explore the relations among motivation, perceived value, and behavioral intention in health and wellness tourism. The results indicate that health and wellness tourists’ motivation significantly positively predicts their behavior intentions. Travelers’ perceived value of health and wellness tourism significantly partially mediates the associations between their behavioral intention and escape motivation, attractive motivation, environmental motivation, as well as interpersonal motivation. No empirical evidence supports the mediating role of perceived value in the correlation between consumption motivation and behavioral intention. Health and wellness tourism industries are encouraged to meet the intrinsic motivation of travelers and make them perceive the value of this kind of tourism, which in turn promotes tourists’ choice, evaluation, and satisfaction of health and wellness tourism.

Suggested Citation

  • Ting Gan & Jiansong Zheng & Wei Li & Jiaxin Li & Junxian Shen, 2023. "Health and Wellness Tourists’ Motivation and Behavior Intention: The Role of Perceived Value," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:4339-:d:1083604
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    1. Huali Pan & Huanhuan Mi & Yanhua Chen & Ziyan Chen & Weizhong Zhou, 2024. "Measurement and Evaluation of the Development Level of Health and Wellness Tourism from the Perspective of High-Quality Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Marina Covalenco (Dobrovolschi), 2024. "Health Tourism Industry: Segmentation, Differentiation and Communication," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(1), pages 418-425, August.

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