Exploring the complex mechanism of the influence of a multisensory tourism experience on tourists’ mental restoration in the research context of historical and cultural blocks

ABSTRACTIncreasing social stress threatens people's mental health. Travelling can effectively relieve mental stress, so the role of tourism experiences in mental restoration is gaining increasing attention. However, no research has examined the mechanism of the embodied effect of tourism experiences on tourists’ mental restoration from a multisensory perspective. Based on sensory marketing theory, a model of multisensory tourism experiences and mental restoration is established, and the boundary conditions and configuration of the former on the latter are considered. Two complementary studies are conducted in the context of historical and cultural districts using structural equation modelling (SEM) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The following conclusions are drawn. First, tourists’ multisensory tourism experience in historical and cultural blocks indirectly improves their mental restoration through the two intermediary psychological processing functions of place attachment and a perceived restorative environment. Second, tourist involvement plays a positive moderating role between multisensory tourism experiences and both place attachment and a perceived restorative environment. Finally, there are no necessary sensory and psychological conditions for high mental restoration, but there are four types of multisensory tourism experience configurations, all of which enable tourists to obtain mental restoration in historical and cultural blocks.KEYWORDS: Multisensory tourism experiencesplace attachmentperceived restorative environmenttourist involvementmental restoration Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 42071193], Jiangsu Provincial Social Science Fund [grant number 23EYB006] and Philosophy and Social Sciences Project of Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province [grant number 2021SJB0426].