Influence of Tea Culture Space on Tourists’ Aesthetic Experience

Grounded in “Thirdspace” theory, this study develops a theoretical framework to explain how tea culture spaces influence tourists’ aesthetic experience, focusing on the underlying mechanisms. Employing structural equation modeling (SEM), we empirically examine the direct effects of tea culture space perception on aesthetic experience, alongside the mediating roles of aesthetic association and aesthetic comprehension. Data were collected from 591 tourists visiting Wuyishan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in China renowned for its natural and cultural heritage. We used SPSS 24.0 to test direct effects and the PROCESS macro to examine mediating effects of the model. The results show that tourists’ tea culture space perception has positive effects on their aesthetic association, aesthetic comprehension, and aesthetic experience. Further analysis indicates that the tea culture space perception enhances tourists’ aesthetic experience by positively influencing their aesthetic association and also strengthens tourists’ aesthetic experience through positive impacts on their aesthetic comprehension. This study expands the application of the “Thirdspace” theory in tourism research through quantitative methods, reveals the internal mechanisms of how cultural spaces influence tourists’ aesthetic experience in greater detail, provides new insights for the study of cultural aesthetic experience at tourist destinations from a spatial perspective, and offers managerial implications for the reproduction of cultural spaces at tourist destinations and the improvement of the quality of tourists’ cultural experiences