A Study On The Relationship Between Flow Experience,place Attachment And Tourist Loyalty Of Rural Tourists

Integration of cultural and tourism industries provides energy for rural revitalization,with the expansion of rural tourism market and the extension of rural tourism industry chain,rural tourism has become a new driving force for comprehensive rural development.In addition,in the era of experience economy,the flow experience that represents people’s forgetfulness and pleasure in the process of experience,has become the ideal state pursued by tourism experience.However,at present,there are limited discussions on flow experience and flow experience in rural tourism context in China,and there is no perfect practical application of immersion experience for various forms of tourism.Therefore,this paper chooses tourist loyalty as the key factor to evaluate the quality and comprehensive benefits of rural tourism development,and introduces two innovative perspectives: place attachment and positive emotion,placing place attachment and positive emotion between immersion experience and tourist loyalty as mediating and moderating variables,respectively,to establish a logical connection among the influencing factors of tourist loyalty,and to understand the inner mechanisms of flow experience,place attachment and positive emotion on tourists’ attitudes and behaviors.It is hoped that this will provide a theoretical basis for the practical exploration of rural tourism.This study follows the empirical research paradigm and uses the structural equation model(SEM)analysis method.First of all,based on theoretical analysis and experts’ suggestions,the variables were defined,the dimensions were classified,and the scales and questionnaires were revised and improved,and research hypotheses and conceptual models were proposed.Secondly,the questionnaire was used to collect data from rural tourists who had visited Tongjianyu Village within three years.Finally,the statistical analysis software such as SPSS26.0,Amos26.0 and Processv4.1 were used to analyze the 346 valid questionnaires collected,including statistical analysis and testing of the scale,hypothesis testing and model fit testing,and to propose innovative and practical countermeasures by combining the research results with the real situation of Tongjiangyu Village in Benxi County.The results of the study showed that :(i)the ten dimensions of challenge and skill balance,action and awareness integration,clear goals,explicit feedback,expectation and feeling balance,concentration on the current task,sense of control,loss of selfawareness,time shift,and automated experience of rural tourists’ flow experience better fit the tourism context and tourists’ characteristics and have higher applicability.(ii)The variability of the prior and experiential stages of flow experience,place dependence and place identity of place attachment,and tourist loyalty was more significant across demographic and tourist behavioral characteristics,and more significant across gender,education,occupation,income level,current residence,and number of revisits,while positive emotion only differed significantly on the variable of current residence.(iii)The three different stages of the flow experience and the place identity dimension of place attachment did not have a significant effect on tourist loyalty.(iv)Flow experience has a significant positive effect on tourist loyalty,place attachment,place dependence,and place identity,while flow experience has a stronger effect on place dependence than place identity.(v)Place attachment and place dependence can positively influence tourist loyalty,while Place attachment plays a positive mediating role between flow experience and tourist loyalty.(vi)Positive emotions play a negative mediating role between flow experience and tourist loyalty.And positive emotion positively moderates the mediating effect of place attachment.