Tourists’ Motivations for Visiting Dark Sky Sites: An Exploratory Study in China

Dark sky tourism as a form of niche tourism is gaining popularity worldwide. However, empirical research examining what motivates tourists to seek out this type of experience is lacking. This research note contributes to bridging this knowledge gap by employing push???pull theory to explore tourists??? motivations for visiting dark sky sites. Adopting a qualitative netnographic approach, Chinese tourists’ perspectives were explored through 22 semistructured interviews. Eleven thematic factors were extracted and mapped within a refined push and pull motivation framework. The findings show how push and pull factors motivate both first-time and repeat visitors to gain dark sky experiences.