Empirical Analysis on Influence of Authenticity Perception on Tourist Loyalty in Historical Blocks in China

Tourist loyalty is the key to the sustainable development of tourism in urban historical blocks. This article focuses on exploring the relationship between authenticity perception and tourist loyalty in this context. With this aim, we introduce the mediating variable of tourist engagement and construct a theoretical model of authenticity perception, tourist engagement, and tourist loyalty. Hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping were performed on questionnaire data of 287 West Street tourists in Dujiangyan, China. The results of this study demonstrate that both object-related authenticity perception and existential authenticity perception have a significant positive impact on tourist loyalty behavior, with similar degrees of influence. Additionally, the study reveals that tourist engagement plays a mediating role in the relationship among object-related authenticity, existential authenticity, and tourist loyalty. From the perspective of tourist engagement, this article reveals the impact mechanism of authenticity perception on tourist loyalty in the context of historical block tourism, enriches the research on tourism authenticity, and deepens the understanding of tourist loyalty behavior. Furthermore, the results of this study also provide reference for the formulation of sustainable development policies related to tourism in historical blocks.