Enhancing Place Identity and Word-of-Mouth in Educational Tourism: An Empirical Study on Confucian Academy of Guiyang Minority

Abstract

Educational tourism is a combination of education and the tourism industry, which is beneficial for students to enter the real world and apply what they have learned. Moreover, the development of educational tourism requires a large number of tour guides and interpreters to provide more job opportunities for the adjacent areas of scenic spots. More importantly, educational tourism can be arranged to make up for the shortage of tourists in scenic spots during the off-season. However, few studies have explored how cultural learning can positively evaluate and sustainably contribute to the tourism industry. Consequently, a theoretical gap was presented. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship among the relevant factors influencing the words of mouth of educational tourism and put forward suggestions. Based on the attributes of the research topic, this paper selects the questionnaire survey method. The Confucian Academy in Guiyang City was selected as the research base and a total of 278 valid questionnaires was obtained through questionnaire surveys. Findings have shown that there is a positive correlation among tourists' perceived value, tourist satisfaction, place dependence, place identity and word-of-mouth. Moreover, tourist satisfaction, place dependence, and place identity are important mediating factors for perceived value and word-of-mouth. Finally, the research suggests that scenic spots should set goals carefully to enhance tourists' perception of perceived value, tourist satisfaction, place dependence, and place identity.