THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLACE PERCEPTION, IMMERSION EXPERIENCE, AND TOURIST BEHAVIORAL INTENTION: A CASE STUDY OF YUNNAN CULTURAL TOURISM PRODUCTS

บทคัดย่อ

This research article aims to: 1) examine the direct impact of place perception on tourists’ behavioral intention toward Yunnan cultural tourism products; 2) assess how place perception influences tourists’ immersion experience; 3) test the mediating role of immersion experience between place perception and behavioral intention; and 4) propose an optimization pathway of “enhancing place perception—amplifying immersion experience—boosting behavioral intention” for the innovation of Yunnan’s cultural tourism products. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was conducted with 508 tourists who experienced seven representative cultural tourism products in Yunnan Province. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire measuring place perception, immersion experience, and behavioral intention on a Likert scale, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), including mediation testing.

The results of the research were: 1) place perception has a significant positive effect on tourists’ behavioral intention, especially in terms of revisit and recommendation intentions; 2) place perception significantly enhances tourists’ immersion experience by strengthening their emotional connection and cultural identification with the destination; 3) immersion experience has a positive, albeit comparatively weaker, direct effect on behavioral intention; and 4) immersion experience plays a partial mediating role between place perception and behavioral intention, confirming that enhancing immersion experience is an effective pathway for transforming place perception into stronger tourist behavioral intentions. This study provides theoretical support and practical guidance for the high-quality and sustainable development of Yunnan’s cultural tourism products.