How Agricultural Cultural Heritage Tourism Promotes Cultural Learning for Sustainable Heritage Development: The Mediating Role of Cultural Identity and the Moderating Role of Income

Whether agricultural cultural heritage (ACH) tourism supports sustainable heritage development depends partly on whether visits sustain the communication and internalization of heritage knowledge rather than merely produce favorable consumption evaluations. Drawing on experience economy theory, social identity theory, and tourism learning theory, this study constructs a mechanism model linking ACH experiences to tourists’ cultural learning. To reduce conceptual overlap, experience quality is defined as visitors’ perceived distinctiveness, novelty, and memorability of the visit, whereas perceived value is defined as a utilitarian assessment of gains relative to the money, time, and effort invested. ACH experience is therefore divided into three analytically distinct dimensions: experience quality, perceived value, and knowledge transfer. Cultural identity is introduced as a mediating variable and is understood as a layered psychological construct including cognitive recognition, affective attachment, and evaluative commitment. Income level is introduced as a moderating variable and is interpreted as a within-sample socioeconomic boundary condition after controlling for education and other demographic characteristics. In this study, sustainability is defined narrowly as the sociocultural continuity of ACH from the visitor side and is operationalized through perceived knowledge transfer, cultural identity, and self-reported cultural learning; income is used to examine whether this pathway differs across socioeconomic groups. Based on 430 valid questionnaires collected from visitors to ACH sites in Fujian Province, this cross-sectional study conducts empirical tests using structural equation modeling (SEM), Bootstrap mediation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that experience quality and knowledge transfer are positively associated with tourists’ cultural learning, with knowledge transfer showing the stronger association. Perceived value has no significant relationship with cultural learning, indicating that a consumption-level perception of value for money does not necessarily correspond to deeper cultural learning. Cultural identity fully mediates the statistical relationship between knowledge transfer and tourists’ cultural learning, revealing a dominant pathway linking knowledge transfer, cultural identity, and cultural learning. Income level positively moderates the relationship between cultural identity and tourists’ cultural learning. Because the data are cross-sectional and self-reported, these findings indicate theoretically consistent associations rather than definitive causal effects. The study contributes to sustainability research by offering a quantifiable visitor-side framework for monitoring knowledge communication, cultural connection, and learning-related outcomes. Repeated measurement of these indicators may support adaptive heritage management and inclusive cultural participation, but they should be combined with ecological, economic, and community-based indicators rather than treated as a complete sustainability index.