Tourist’s destination image, place dimensions, and engagement: the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and dark tourism

Tourists in growing numbers are visiting historical sites for their historical value as well as for the association with tragedy and death. As one of these sites, the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has received significant attention from tourists and scholars, largely because of its education, historical, geographical, heritage, and economic importance. This study is designed to explore DMZ tourists' through examining their perceived destination image, place dimensions, engagement, and future intentions. The result showed tourists' destination image had a significantly positive effect on tourists' engagement and future intention, while tourist's engagement had a significantly positive effect on future intention. In addition, tourist's engagement partially mediated the relationship between destination image and future intention. This study offers valuable implications for practitioners and government agencies, including countries with potential dark tourism attractions, as well as empirically validated the theory application to the proposed model.