Driving destination image and advocacy through heritage rejuvenation experiences: a comparative study of postmodern and traditional tourists through Gaze Theory

This study centres on cultural heritage tourism as a pivotal driver of cultural transformation, investigating the influence of heritage rejuvenation experience quality on destination image and tourist advocacy behaviour. With the growing expansion of the postmodern tourist, their distinct gaze modalities and experiential expectations, which are differing from those of traditional tourists, have rendered the design of differentiated experiences for these two groups a critical research agenda. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this paper conducts Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and two-group comparative analysis on data from 554 questionnaires, complemented by semi-structured interviews for in-depth contextual elaboration. The results reveal that the quality of museum, relic, and cultural product rejuvenation experiences all positively influence destination image. However, only cultural product rejuvenation experience quality and destination image directly drive destination advocacy, with destination image mediating the effects of museum and relic experiences. Critically, multi-group analysis demonstrates significant differences between postmodern and traditional tourists. And qualitative findings further elucidate these divergences. This study constructs an analytical framework that integrates the Gaze theory with the Sense-Think-Act paradigm, thereby offering a theoretical foundation and practical insights for the refined experience management and market-oriented strategies of heritage tourism destinations.