Exploring value-based motivations for culture and heritage tourism using the means-end chain and laddering approach

ABSTRACT While motivations for cultural and heritage tourism remain complex and diverse, previous studies overlook the structure and link of personal values, expected experience consequences, and destination attributes. Meanwhile, value pursuit as an enduring belief influencing tourists’ motivations and behavior has received limited research attention. Therefore, this study explores diverse motivations using the means-end chain and laddering interview techniques. The Five Great Avenues in Tianjin, China, a historical landscape embodying the social characteristics of China and Western colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries, was used as the study site. The results show that self-development and socialization are the most important value pursuits, followed by hedonism and differentiation. Other value-based motivations include identification, existentialism, escapism, and freedom. A hierarchical map between value pursuits, tourism consequences, and destination attributes is constructed to elucidate the interactive nature of tourism motivation. Findings are utilized to develop a value-based motivation classification framework for understanding diverse value-based motivations. This study contributes to a comprehensive framework for understanding the complexity of motivation in the culture and heritage tourism context, which provides practical insights for segmentation and destination positioning.