Industrial tourism: how visitor heterogeneity shapes behavioural intention through sustainability perceptions

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of sustainability perceptions in explaining social acceptance and future willingness to engage in industrial tourism in territories characterised by strong productive identities. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on survey data from 405 Spanish residents, the study applies latent class analysis to identify preference-based visitor profiles across different industrial tourism modalities. Sustainability perceptions and prior experience are used to externally validate the resulting configurations, while binary logistic regression assesses their association with future willingness to engage in industrial tourism in the province of Almería (Spain). Findings Three distinct visitor profiles are identified, reflecting differentiated orientations towards productive, cultural and knowledge-based modalities. Sustainability perceptions vary significantly across profiles and are positively associated with future willingness to engage. Preference configurations and sustainability evaluations show greater explanatory capacity for participation intention than socio-demographic characteristics within the analysed context. Originality/value The study shows that sustainability perceptions are positively associated with behavioural intention and vary across preference-based visitor profiles in emerging tourism forms, contributing to a better understanding of how industrial tourism may gain social acceptance within diversification processes.