Creating tourist citizens: the interplay of wellness motivations, trust, and satisfaction in Thailand's wellness tourism

Purpose Wellness tourism constitutes one of the most rapidly expanding segments of the tourism industry, playing a pivotal role in enhancing physical and psychological well-being. This study aims to investigate the influence of wellness tourism motivation on trust, satisfaction, and tourist citizenship behaviors (TCB). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 400 international tourists who used wellness tourism services in Thailand through paper-based questionnaires and were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings The findings revealed that wellness tourism motivations significantly influenced trust and satisfaction. Furthermore, both trust and satisfaction significantly affected TCB, including recommendations, helping, tolerance, and feedback. Practical implications This study provides guidance to wellness operators on promoting TCB by fostering motivation fulfillment and developing relationship quality. The findings emphasize the need to create authentic wellness programs that address intrinsic needs while building trust and satisfaction, as these dimensions are strongly associated with citizenship behaviors, generating word-of-mouth marketing, operational improvements, and destination competitiveness. Originality/value This study makes a distinctive contribution by examining the complete motivation–relationship quality–citizenship behavior pathway in wellness tourism, an area receiving limited empirical attention. These findings advance our understanding of how wellness motivations simultaneously activate trust and satisfaction through integrated cognitive-affective processes while revealing differential effects on citizenship behaviors. By foregrounding motivational fulfillment as foundational to relationship development, this study extends existing theoretical frameworks and offers actionable insights for wellness tourism research and its practical applications.