A multi-method study of the emotional mechanism linking seaside destination attributes and tourists’ revisit intention

The advent of the post-pandemic era has increased the emotional rewards destinations need to provide. However, the psychological process of generating tourists’ revisit intention remains unclear in research on destination attributes and revisit intention. Existing research has many drawbacks, suggesting important research gaps, including using generalized mediating variables, focusing on conventional tourism scenarios, and overreliance on regression-based techniques. This study fills the gaps using multiple methods (qualitative and quantitative methods and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) to examine the linkage between seaside destination attributes and tourists’ revisit intentions using Sanya, China, as a case study. The innovations of this study include the detailed emotional path of tourists’ revisit intention, the use of multiple methods, and the identification of the critical emotional variable. Managerial implications about marketing and service entry point are also provided.