Salient health goal, salient restoration? A transformative model of wellness tourism

Although pursuing health and restoration has become a salient motivation for contemporary tourists, the transformative process of how health-seeking tourists achieve restoration in wellness tourism destinations remains unclear. Grounded in goal systems theory and cognitive appraisal theory, this study investigated wellness tourists’ recovery-acquisition process. Through analyses of 390 on-site survey questionnaires collected in Dujiangyan, China, the result revealed health goal salience significantly predicted perceived destination restorative qualities and tourist engagement. Besides, perceived destination restorative qualities positively influenced tourist engagement, and together, these two constructs exerted a positive impact on recovery perceptions. Additionally, resource uniqueness perception further enhanced such impact.