Modern Social Science Research

As the foremost of China’s four great Buddhist mountains, Mount Wutai is a quintessential religious and cultural tourism destination where Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism converge. It possesses outstanding religious tourism resources, and visitor experience and loyalty are crucial to its sustainable development. Taking Mount Wutai as a case study, this paper employs grounded theory and hierarchical coding to distil four core categories: subjective factors, objective factors, satisfaction of visitor value experiences, and visitor loyalty. A model of factors influencing visitor loyalty in Mount Wutai’s religious and cultural tourism is thereby constructed; Using hierarchical linear regression, the study empirically tests the effects of each factor. The results indicate that both subjective and objective factors significantly influence visitor value experience satisfaction, with subjective factors contributing a larger incremental explanatory power. Visitor value experience satisfaction accounts for 77.5% of the variance in visitor loyalty, with the fulfilment of three value categories-praying for blessings and making wishes, religious purification, and ecological landscapes-all demonstrating significant positive driving effects. Based on these empirical findings, optimisation strategies are proposed across three dimensions: comprehensive scenic area management, preservation of cultural authenticity, and upgrading of digital services. These provide theoretical guidance and practical support for religious and cultural tourism destinations seeking to enhance visitor experiences and improve visitor loyalty.

Religious tourism; Visitor experience; Visitor loyalty; Grounded theory; Mount Wutai