How Self-Congruity Elicits Tourists' Country Attachment, Patriotism, and Intention to Continuous Participation in Red Tourism

Drawing on the cognitive–affective–behavioral framework, this study aims to explore tourists' reactions toward red tourism with a mixed-method approach. Specifically, given the clash of the scale of country attachment and patriotism, in Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to confirm these two scales; then, a model linking self-congruity (higher-order), country attachment, patriotism, and intention to continue to participate in red tourism was tested. The findings indicate that there is a positive link between self-congruity, tourists' country attachment, patriotism, and intention to continue to participate in red tourism. Semi-structured follow-up interviews were performed in Study 2 to further confirm and explain the results in Study 1. We found that tourists conduct congruence assessments pre-, during, and post- a red trip, and the situational elements trigger tourists to think about “self,” eliciting country attachment and patriotism toward the country progressively, which ultimately affects subsequent behavioral practices.