Military tourism cultural heritage site experiencescape effects on authenticity, memorability, and revisit intention: learning from Taiwanese military dependents’ villages

Purpose The normalization of COVID-19 disease prevention has presented a major opportunity for the transformation and upgrade of cultural and tourism products in Taiwan. This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of Taiwanese military dependents’ villages, known as juancun, two studies were conducted to test the path relationships of juancun experiencescape, authenticity, memorability and revisit intention. Design/methodology/approach This research conducted two studies by using a mixed sampling of snowball sampling and purposive sampling for the questionnaire survey. Based on the 397 valid questionnaires retained in Study 1, a cultural heritage site experiencescape was developed and validated; in Study 2, 393 valid questionnaires were collected, and structural equation modeling was conducted to test hypotheses that were developed drawing on the stimulus–organism–response model and theory of buyer behavior. Findings It is revealed that cultural heritage site experiencescape include natural and cultural, social, sensory and functional factors and that the experiencescape affects authenticity positively; “existential authenticity–memorability” mediates the relationship of experiencescape and revisit intention, whereas co-creation behavior has the positive moderating effects on the relationship of experiencescape and authenticity. Originality/value The research developed an experiencescape scale for cultural heritage sites and described the managerial implications for destination management organizations regarding product development and service design.