How Self‐Congruity Elicits Tourists' Country Attachment, Patriotism, and Intention to Continuous Participation in Red Tourism

ABSTRACT Drawing on the cognitive–affective–behavioral framework, this study aims to explore tourists' reactions toward red tourism with a mixed‐method approach. Specifically, given the clash of the scale of country attachment and patriotism, in Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to confirm these two scales; then, a model linking self‐congruity (higher‐order), country attachment, patriotism, and intention to continue to participate in red tourism was tested. The findings indicate that there is a positive link between self‐congruity, tourists' country attachment, patriotism, and intention to continue to participate in red tourism. Semi‐structured follow‐up interviews were performed in Study 2 to further confirm and explain the results in Study 1. We found that tourists conduct congruence assessments pre‐, during, and post‐ a red trip, and the situational elements trigger tourists to think about “self,” eliciting country attachment and patriotism toward the country progressively, which ultimately affects subsequent behavioral practices.