Current Issues in Tourism

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The effects of personal value, motivation,

transformation and behavioural intention on
spiritual tourism: a case study in Tibet

Fengru Zheng, Chung-Shing Chan & Shuying Zhang

To cite this article: Fengru Zheng, Chung-Shing Chan & Shuying Zhang (2023): The effects of
personal value, motivation, transformation and behavioural intention on spiritual tourism: a
case study in Tibet, Current Issues in Tourism, DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2160308

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2160308

Published online: 10 Jan 2023.

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CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM
https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2160308

The effects of personal value, motivation, transformation and

behavioural intention on spiritual tourism: a case study in Tibet
Fengru Zhenga, Chung-Shing Chan a
and Shuying Zhangb
a
Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong
Kong; bKey Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and
Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In modern society where material life is gradually enriched, spiritual Received 26 August 2022
tourism emerges as a popular form of tourism to pay more attention to Accepted 13 December 2022
public spiritual needs. This study mainly focuses on the influence of
KEYWORDS
tourists’ personal value, motivation, transformation and behavioural Spiritual tourism; personal
intention on spiritual tourism based on a case study of Tibet, China. We value; motivation;
first identify the constructs of tourists’ perception relating to personal transformation; behavioural
value, motivation, emotional transformation and behavioural intention. intention; Tibet
Through collecting data via questionnaires and in-depth interviews, we
further verify and adjust the model via the methods of exploratory
factor analysis, regression analysis and R Studio. The complex
relationships between influencing factors and tourists’ perception are
explored by structural equation modelling. The findings reveal personal
value, internal motivation, transcendence and behavioural intention
have significant positive relationships with spiritual tourism. We
conclude with a discussion of the implications of this study and policy
suggestions for effective and sustainable development of the spiritual
tourism in Tibet under the current situation of global pandemic.

Introduction
With increasing pressures of modern life, many turn to relaxation and rehabilitation to improve phys-
ical and mental health (Wen et al., 2022; Crouch, 2007). Particularly, there appears to be a rising trend
of religious and spiritual pursuits in today’s society, including tourism with religious or spiritual pur-
poses (Buzinde et al., 2014; Collins-Kreiner & Kliot, 2000). Within academia, studies on religious and
spiritual tourism tend to focus on travel characteristics and motivations (UNWTO, 2015).
Religious and spiritual tourism share similar spiritual meanings in health, happiness and self-
improvement in mental and psychological aspect (Abdul Halim et al., 2021; Lin & Hsieh, 2022;
Buzinde, 2020; Kato & Progano, 2017). Spiritual tourism includes meditation, yoga, mindfulness
experiences and other spiritual perceptions or improvement (Choe & O’Regan, 2020). Although spiri-
tual tours involving meditation practices have attracted significant scientific interest in their psycho-
logical and physiological impact, little attention has been paid to their social and cultural dimensions
(Norman & Pokorny, 2017). Spiritual tourism is a new concept that requires theoretical development
and empirical investigation (Battour et al., 2017). In terms of research methodology, there has been
little progress establishing a conceptual link between the manifestation of personal values and spiri-
tual tourism, neglecting personal value systems that travellers bring to the experience (Kim et al.,
2016). There is also an absence of a conceptual or theoretical model developed in the spiritual

CONTACT Chung-Shing Chan ccs_johnson@cuhk.edu.hk

© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 F. ZHENG ET AL.

tourism context that verifies spiritual tourist motivations, psychological changes and loyalty to spiri-
tual destinations (Kala, 2021).
This study selects the Tibet Autonomous Region (hereafter ‘Tibet’) in China, a relatively remote
and niche destination, as an empirical case for developing a structural model of spiritual tourism
through a quantitative, survey-based method to bridge the abovementioned knowledge deficiency.
This paper aims to identify the distinctive characteristics and relationship between the constructs of
personal values, motivations, tourist transformation and travel behavioural intention. The proposed
model is expected to show the most influential factors affecting the potential of spiritual tourism and
come up with some suggestions on developing spiritual tourism sustainably in Tibet.
This research investigates different perspectives of spiritual tourism through questionnaires and
interviews to offer insight into spiritual tourism in Tibet by understanding the travel decision-making
process. This study is also part of an interdisciplinary project spanning across the fields of tourism
and psychology to examine the influence of tourist spirituality on environmental behaviour and
that of devotion on perceptions of health, healing and well-being. Through numerical and textual
analyses, this study would allow authorities and stakeholders to understand tourist interests and pre-
ferences and promote spiritual tourism development in the region and beyond. Moreover, it is
hoped that the present research’s image-building and vigorous marketing of a ‘spiritual brand’
would encourage the local government to capitalize on Tibet’s natural and cultural resources to
further develop its spiritual tourism product and attract financial and capital support for such under-
taking. Doing so could offer the relatively stagnant economy an opportunity to rejuvenate.

Literature Review
Conceptualization of spiritual tourism
Travelling and tourism experiences are seen as a stress and exhaustion reliever. Given the links
between mental health and well-being and spirituality, topics related to spirituality should be
given more attention in tourism research (Abdul Halim et al., 2021; Buckley et al., 2019; Lin et al.,
2021). The phenomenon of spiritual tourism was described as ‘new pilgrimage’ in some studies
(Fedele, 2013), emphasizing the differences with traditional institutionalized religion and dogma-
tism. The term ‘spiritual tourism’ has thrived alongside the eclectic combination of orthodox and
unorthodox beliefs (Fedele, 2013; Kujawa, 2017), and the rise of diverse, novel forms of tourism.
Despite its rapid development, no consensus has been reached about what this form of tourism
encompasses given the difficulty to define it.
Although there are conceptual overlaps with pilgrimage, religious tourism and spiritual tourism,
they still can be distinguished according to respective unique attributes. Pilgrimage involves reli-
gious experiences combined with religious travel (Griffin, 2007; Heidari et al., 2018; Kim et al.,
2020), including two integrated components, namely a traditional religious journey and a modern
secular journey (Collins-Kreiner, 2010). It could be summarized that the purpose of pilgrimage origi-
nated from religious beliefs and religious involvement, but religious tourism is not limited to strict
adherence to the ways of a pilgrimage (Luz, 2020). The traditional pilgrimage is an experience of
hardship and suffering, while religious tourism may contain secular experiences.
Many studies discussed spiritual tourism in the light of religious beliefs (Choe & O’Regan, 2020;
Almuhrzi & Alsawafi 2017; Lopez et al., 2017) relating to Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, etc. Some
scholars even tended to treat spiritual tourism and religious tourism as synonymous or interchange-
able even though they realized the nuances between the two. At the same time, there is another
view that despite their close relationship, spiritual tourism could go beyond the context of religious
tourism (Norman & Pokorny, 2017; Singleton, 2017). For example, Kujawa (2017) considered that
spiritual tourism is prompted more by a desire for spiritual experiences and personal growth
rather than devotional aspects prescribed by traditional religions and their motives for pilgrimages.
Research about the marketing of Islamic tourism also pointed out that spiritual aspects of a religion
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 3

can be marketed to attract religious followers for tourism (Haq & Yin Wong, 2010). In terms of secular
pilgrimages and sacred tours, some empirical investigations have been documented in tourism
research to show that such pilgrimages and tours share several commonalities (Heidari et al.,
2018; Kim et al., 2020; Yoo, et al., 2022; Singh, 2005). In Tibet, believers perform the Long
Kowtow for thousands of miles in worship to stimulate their faith and purify their spirits through
physical challenge. However, Cohen (1979) also argued that while tourists travel away from the
centres of their societies searching for authentic experiences, their journeys are toward the centre
of the world in search of reality and spiritual identity.
As mentioned above, spiritual tourism is related to spiritual needs where religious factors may not
exist, offering a way for people to experience continual and dynamic personal development. It has a
wider significance and larger scope compared to religious tourism, with a discursive shift between
spirituality and religiosity as shown in Figure 1.

Influential factors of spiritual tourism perception

Tourism perception refers to an individual’s mental representation or impression of tourist destina-
tion (del Bosque & Martin, 2008), which is a process of knowing the destination through organizing
and interpreting the images, feelings, thoughts and culture (Biran, Poria, & Reichel, 2006). Previous
studies have pointed to the decisive role of perception in tourists’ destination preference and visiting
behaviour (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999). People are more likely to visit destinations with positive
images and wonderful experiences (Önder & Marchiori, 2017), and spiritual tourists are no exception.
There is no doubt that the knowledge of factors associated with travel demand motivations and
tourism perceptions are beneficial to facilitate the scientific planning and sustainable development
of tourist destinations (Chien, Sheu, & Hong, 2010). Nevertheless, the influencing factors and their
reciprocal relationships of perception in the context of spiritual tourism require further discussion
(Lin & Hsieh, 2022; Buzinde, 2020). This study explores this issue from the following perspectives.

Figure 1. Primary drivers for spiritual tourism (Source: Cheer et al., 2017).
4 F. ZHENG ET AL.

First, personal values are defined as strategies used to adapt a situation to one’s needs and assist
in evaluating travel satisfaction (Li & Cai, 2012). Personal value is an abstract concept, but it essen-
tially serves as guidelines for motivating behaviour. It is also a type of social cognition that reflects
internal states, intervening between stimuli and responses and affecting such responses (Hall et al.,
2018). Quantitative methods can assess and verify values, such as Rokeach’s Value Survey (Rokeach,
1968), the measurement approach to consumer values by the list of values (Kahle et al., 1986) and
other extended literature. Personal values originated from the theoretical base of Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs. People possess a system of value hierarchy guiding their priorities and importance placed
onto different values and needs. They could have significant relationships with motivations and
influence the process of travelling. Some researchers identified the significant effects on motives
for visiting pilgrimage sites (Hall et al., 2018; Li & Cai, 2012; Liutikas, 2017) and visitor satisfaction
(Canoves & Josep, 2016; Krešić et al., 2013).
Second, motivation drives decision-making and the resulting behaviour. It is the most initial and
crucial factor influencing tourists’ choice of destination in the decision-making process. It is essential
for tourism developers, marketers and agencies to understand and match the target customers’ trip
preferences. Cohen (1979) discovered that motives of tourist journeys are more than just desire for
recreation and entertainment. Tourists are first pushed by internal desires or emotional factors, and
then are pulled by external or tangible factors related to destination attributes. The two forces could
be both independent and interdependent (Battour et al., 2017). Destination choice is primarily made
through interactions between destination attributes and individual tourists’ motivations (Nicolau &
Más, 2006; Su & Wall, 2009). The motives and emotions help shape the spiritual experiential elements
of secular pilgrimage (Hall et al., 2018). Tibet is a holy place for the pious to experience spiritual
enlightenment. Lois-González and Santos (2015) noted that pilgrim experiences along the Camino
include religion, spirituality, nature and scenery, history and art, and sports or enjoyment. Fleischer
(2000) found that major activities in the Holy Land include visiting holy museums and archaeological
sites. Collins-Kreiner and Kliot (2000) pinpointed that tourist motivations to the Holy Land range from
personal to religious and spiritual reasons.
However, in terms of motivations and behavioural intention, empirical research has suggested
associations between motivations and intentions by testing the motivation and intention to
revisit in Chinese tourists (Huang & Hsu, 2009). No significant connections have been identified
between behavioural intention and motivations (Li & Cai, 2012). Therefore, this study hopes to illus-
trate the influence of tourists’ motivations towards the destinations on behavioural intention.
Third, it is often considered that travel could provide an encounter with otherness and strange-
ness in natural, cultural and social aspects and significantly transform the tourists’ spirituality. Tourist
experience can be evaluated through spiritual transformation. Some researchers argued that future
studies must explore visitors’ impressions and spiritual and practical needs (Collins-Kreiner, 2010). In
studying tourist experience, there is a stronger focus on individual, inner experiences than on exter-
nal elements (Collins-Kreiner, 2010).
People can achieve peace and happiness from refreshing conditions for the body, mind and spirit
(Gesler, 1996). Therefore, emotions that undergo transformation during travel would significantly
influence tourists’ satisfaction and future behavioural intention. There is a positive association
between emotions and satisfaction with consumer experience (Bigné et al., 2005; Machleit &
Mantel, 2001). It has been shown that that travel, notably in the form of pilgrimage, is traditionally
associated with personal transformation of a spiritual nature (Morgan, 2010), indicating that spiritual
tourism could serve as a vehicle for spiritual transformation. Based on the above theory, this study
would assume that emotional transformation would affect tourists’ satisfaction and subsequent
behaviour. Indeed, it provides rationality for this paper to pay attention to the connections with spiri-
tual transformation (inner psychological development) and motivations and personal behavioural
and behaviour intentions.
Fourth, several tourism studies have found a positive relationship between service evaluations of
site attributes and satisfaction acted as a predictor of future behavioural intentions and reflection of
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 5

tourist loyalty (Hall et al., 2018; Krešić et al., 2013). It is verified that pilgrim satisfaction was positively
affected by the attributes of pilgrimage sites and resulted in an intention to recommend to family
and friends (Hall et al., 2018). In addition, recommendations, repurchases and positive comments
can count as consumer loyalty in the marketing aspect. In the tourism market, tourist loyalty
could be considered an intentional behaviour. It is widely accepted that behavioural intention is a
primary determinant and predictor of behaviour (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).
Research has claimed that behavioural intention results from attitude, subjective norms and per-
ceived behavioural control (Ajzen, 1991). Attitude is a value expressive with a response to certain
situations. This theory implies that personal values, as an individual’s central belief, may influence
the individual’s behavioural intention by intervening with attitude (Li & Cai, 2012). As many scholars
have demonstrated the relationship between values and behavioural intentions, the current study
will not investigate such interactions.

Spiritual tourism in Tibet

In spiritual tourism research, Tibet would be the destination to evaluate what kind of spiritual motiv-
ations for traveller to visit there and how tourists can perceive with spiritual transformation. Tibet is a
sacred place that attract believers and secular tourists both from international and domestic for
various reasons. The cold, barren and challenging side of Tibet gives the world a discouraging
impression while its beautiful and rich natural resources create a harmonious and wonderful
living environment for local residents. Thus, it creates a unique relationship between human and
nature that the marvellous and magical natural resources and historical cultural resources producing
a unique condition to acquire a state of perfect peace and self-liberation for human beings. For
devout believers and Buddhists, the capital of Tibet is their destination of most pilgrims, step by
step from their home to the statue of Shakyamuni in Jo Khang Temple, regardless of the extreme
heat or cold weather, enduring huger and starvation in order to express their extreme piety in
their beliefs. Besides, it was once regarded as a polar region except for the north and south poles.
Its fantastic natural environment and rustic folk characteristics with abundant cultural resources
and historically religious importance make Tibet become a desirable destination that fire tourists’
imagination. Moscardo and other scholars declare that worldwide pursuit of authenticity and other-
ness has been an influence with Tibet being viewed and promoted as a distinctive and spiritually
uplifting location (Moscardo & Pearce, 1999; Wu & Pearce, 2012).
Tibet is located in the southwest of boundary China beyond a stretch of wilderness and a large
uninhabited territory. The peripherality of geographic brings difficulties for visitors and also creates
miracles that prompt pious men or adventurers to travel. The detachment from daily life allows tour-
ists to intensify and enhance their understanding and experiences of the spiritual meaning of their
faiths and beliefs. Year 2006 is an important year for Tibet tourism because of the opening of
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which has greatly improved the convenience for tourism to visit and devel-
opment of transportation accessibility also open a new world for people from other areas to
know more about Tibet. On the other hand, the transportation accessibility also enables the devel-
opment of spiritual tourism in this attractive area. Therefore, with subjective convenience and objec-
tive spiritual potentials, Tibet is a place that deserves to discover and explore in terms of spiritual
tourism.

Methodology
Questionnaire design and variables
This study aims to understand the influencing factors of spiritual tourism from the tourists’ perspec-
tives; thus, we surveyed tourists to achieve their attitudes. Based on the theoretical framework pro-
posed by Hall et al. (2018), the factors including personal value, motivation, emotional
6 F. ZHENG ET AL.

transformation and behavioural intention of spiritual tourism were incorporated into the analytical
framework of this study, and they were assumed to be positively correlated with tourists’ perception
(Figure 2). A summary of main factors and variables is shown in Table 1, and a hypothetical structure
of variables is shown in Figure 2.
Table 1 shows that nine variables were designed to evaluate personal value. According to the
well-established List of Values (LOV) scale (Kahle et al., 1986). These values can be used to classify
people on Maslow’s hierarchy and related more closely to the values of life’s major roles (Kahle
et al., 1986). The LOV scale has been widely used to represent personal values and to evaluate
their importance and connection with other factors in tourism (Hall et al., 2018; Madrigal, 1995).
LOV was designed to measure consumer values, and the subject of the research are tourists (Li &
Cai, 2012) and secular pilgrims (Hall et al., 2018; Li & Cai, 2012). The insignificant variable of ‘excite-
ment’ as found in Kahle’s (1986) study was replaced by a new variable in the current study. A study
that examined how personal value networks were constructed through laddering and implication
matrix indicated that a variable of ‘freedom’ ranked the second layer of values (Lin & Fu, 2017). Fur-
thermore, people who choose to travel during their leisure time express desires to escape everyday
life and pursue a novel, freeing experience. In this study, most travellers visited Tibet on independent
tours, implying that they preferred flexible and unfettered schedules. Hence, freedom was added as
a new variable under personal values in the current research.
This study divided travel motivations into push and pull factors. Push factors are related to
internal elements and draw on the individuals’ psychological attributes, including eight items
(Table 1). Meanwhile, pull factors are associated with two external forces: natural resources and cul-
tural resources. All variables were developed based on related literature and modified according to
the characteristics of the research destination.
Emotional transformation was determined by six variables. In the questionnaire, variables were
presented in phrases for better understanding, which included (1) increased feelings of relaxation;
(2) increased feelings of inner peace and harmony; (3) improved understanding of the self; (4)
increased energy and passion; (5) improved patience and tolerance; and (6) increased feelings of
gratitude. A study on wellness tourists searching for transformation compared the benefits
sought by spiritual retreat visitors and separated them into six benefit factors (Voigt et al., 2011).
The author used 10 items to evaluate the transcendence factor, which is similar to emotional

Figure 2. Hypothetical structure with variables of spiritual tourism.

 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 7

Table 1. Variable selection and sources.

Factors Variables Sources
Personal Value Self-esteem Hall et al. (2018); Kahle et al. (1986); Li & Cai (2012)
Security
Friendliness
Achievement
Self-fulfillment
Belonging
Be-respected
Enjoyment
Freedom Lin and Fu (2017)
Motivation Push Factor Inner peace Li and Cai (2012); Yoon and Uysal (2005)
Know about myself
Travel with family and friend
Relieve pressure
Share travel experience
Enjoy luxury journey
Pursue adventure
Seek excitement
Pull Factor (Attributes) Natural scenery Yoon and Uysal (2005)
Cultures
Emotional transformation Feel relaxing Pesonen and Komppula (2010); Voigt et al. (2011)
Feel inner peace
Know more about myself
Feel energetic and passionate
Learn about patience, tolerance
Feel grateful
Behavioural Intention Recommend to others Li and Cai (2012); Yoon and Uysal (2005)
Make positive comments
Revisit

transformation. This study used five of them as variables. In addition, apart from variables in existing
literature, this paper also created one new variables, namely ‘feel grateful’, to evaluate tourists’ trans-
formation after their journey (Table 1).
Post-tour evaluations were measured by tourists’ behavioural intentions, also important for
tourism loyalty. Four indicators have been developed about behavioural and financial consequences
in literature (Li & Cai, 2012). These include willingness to recommend destinations, willingness to
encourage others to visit the destinations, willingness to say positive things about the destinations,
and willingness to revisit the destinations in the future. This study combined the first two indicators
into one due to their similarity and to avoid possible multi-collinearity of the two variables.
Finally, two sets of questionnaires were designed for two segmentation of tourists who have been
to Tibet and who haven’t been there with strong interests in Tibet or spiritual tourism. As we know,
travelling to Tibet requires not only good health condition because of the harsh environment but
also adequate financial support accounting for the long-term journey and costly transportation
and consumption. Therefore, it is a destination which is relatively not available for most tourists,
and the plan B of this research is to investigate those travellers who are curious and keen on
Tibet even though never been there. The reasons or motivations for them to start their journey
and the relationship between personal values and spiritual tourism would be evaluated. The majority
of questions were the same for two target segmentation in the surveys. The main differences were
that the later survey lacked emotional transformation and intentional behaviour since travellers were
absence of actual experiences.
After a pilot test was conducted and issued to both professional and unspecialized person to
figure out whether there were some misinterpretation or unintelligible questions. Then the final
questionnaires comprised two parts: the first part elicited the respondents’ demographic infor-
mation, including gender, age, education level, occupation and religion; and the second part was
8 F. ZHENG ET AL.

a set of statement. Respondents were required to evaluate the importance of each item on a 5-point
Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Data collection
The data were collected through both online and offline modes since visitors who had visited Tibet
were difficult to sample using traditional sampling approach such as random sampling. Due to the
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on travel, the snowball sampling method was
adopted to distribute network questionnaires via WeChat, the most widely used social networking
tool in China with more than 1.26 billion users worldwide. Convenience sampling method was used
to distribute offline or paper-based questionnaires to the sample of tourists through travel agencies
simultaneously. Considering some bias and inaccuracy data collected online, face-to-face and tele-
phone interviews were used to explore and better understand questionnaire results in more detail.
The survey was conducted in a semi-structure interview mode, and respondents’ opinions on Tibet
tourism were collected. Finally, a total of 220 questionnaires were collected from February to April
2020. Among these surveys, two-thirds of interviewees have not been to, but had strong interest to
travel to Tibet. One-thirds of them have travelled to Tibet at least once.
A profile of respondents was obtained using a frequency analysis, as shown in Table 2 with demo-
graphic characteristics of respondents, including both tourists who have and have not been to Tibet.
Eleven questionnaires were treated as invalid, because each item on the questionnaire was given the
same point. Meanwhile, valid data consisted of 71 respondents who have travelled to Tibet and 139
respondents who have never been to Tibet.
As shown in the below table, most interviewees were relatively young (18–29 years old) and have
completed higher education, with almost 85% having an associate degree or above. There were
slightly more female (54.9%) than male (45.1%) respondents, and visitors in the 18–29 age group
made up 62% of respondents, followed by the 30–39 (16.9%), and 40–49 (18.3%) age groups.

Data analysis
Data were analysed by SPSS 25.0 software and AMOS 21.0 software in this study. The statistical
relationship between variables and coefficient of adjusted model by AMOS Exploratory Factor

Table 2. Demographic profile of respondents (n = 71).

Tourists who have been to Tibet
Gender Number Percent
Male 32 45.1%
Female 39 54.9%
Age
18–29 years 44 62.0%
30–39 years 12 16.9%
40–49 years 13 18.3%
50–59 years 2 2.8%
Education
Under Secondary 1 1.4%
Senior High 10 14.1%
College 14 19.7%
Undergraduate 34 47.9%
Above Master 12 16.9%
Religion
Buddhism 13 18.3%
Daoism 1 1.4%
Christianity-Protestantism 2 2.8%
Christianity-Catholicism 1 1.4%
No religion 54 76.1%
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 9

Analysis (EFA) was used to reduce the items into a smaller number of latent factors using SPSS and to
obtain an optimal model through R Studio. Following this optimal model, structural equation mod-
elling (SEM) was subsequently used to test and analyse the relationship among variables and factors.

Results
Model construction
First of all, the correlation between the four factors and spiritual tourism was tested according to
Pearson correlation analysis. The coefficients between each of the factors and spiritual tourism
were above 0.4 at a significance level < 0.001, indicating that all of the factors were positively corre-
lated to spiritual tourism (Table 3).
Then, regression analysis was conducted to analyse the relationship between the four factors and
spiritual tourism. ANOVA, R² and Adjusted R² were used to test model fitness and whether residuals
were auto-correlated. Table 4 mainly addressed R-square and Adjusted R². The R² represented the
ability of independent variables to explain the dependent variable. The closer the R² and adjusted
R² are the more stable the data. The adjusted R² was 0.594, indicating that independent variables
could explain the dependent variable to 59.4%. An ANOVA table was used to verify the hypothesis.
The hypothesis was rejected because the significance of the ANOVA table was lower than 0.01, and
at least one variable significantly affected the dependent variable.
After that, a regression analysis was done and the result is shown in Table 5. Regression analysis
showed whether independent variables had significant effects on the dependent variable. The orig-
inal hypothesis assumed that personal value, motivation, transformation and behavioural intention,
had positive relationships with spiritual tourism. The result of sig. < 0.05 meant that the original
hypothesis was accepted, and it turned out that independent variables significantly affected the
dependent variable. However, the coefficient table of regression analysis shows that the significance
value for three factors was above 0.005, and only ‘transformation’ had a significant effect on spiritual
tourism. The VIF value indicated collinearity between independent variables; however, its value was
below 10, which means the collinearity was not serious. Therefore, the original model was not suit-
able for further analysis, and we further adjusted the factors via exploratory factor analysis to obtain
a better model fit with a good fitting degree.

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Before assessing the conceptual model, constructed validity involving the evaluation of the degree
of reliability of the variables should be satisfied. Reliability of 28 variables in this study was 0.902,
indicating a good level of reliability, as it exceeded the 0.7 level of reliability for Cronbach’s. To delin-
eate the underlying factors of tourists’ perception of quality, we conducted an EFA using the prin-
cipal component method with varimax rotation. Validity Analysis and Factor Analysis were also
conducted. EFA was the first method performed for variables deletion and segmentation. The
result mainly depended on the KMO value and significance through validity analysis. With a KMO
> 0.7, independent variables designed in the questionnaire were deemed to have a certain connec-
tion and the questionnaire was valid. Meanwhile, a significance level of <0.001 indicated that our
data were qualified for subsequent analyses.

Table 3. Correlation analysis.

Factors Pearson correlation Sig.
Personal value 0.40 0.001
Motivation 0.607 0.000
Transformation 0.757 0.000
Behavioural intention 0.532 0.000
10 F. ZHENG ET AL.

Table 4. Fitting degree of the original model.

R R-square Adjusted R² F-value Freedom Significance DW value
.786 a .618 .594 26.646 70 .000b 1.956
a
Dependent variable: Regard as spiritual tourism.
b
Predictive variables: Personal value, motivation, transformation, behavioural intention.

Next, we extracted the principal components of factors by using the maximum variance orthog-
onal rotation method. Variables with a factor loading above 0.5 were retained for further analysis,
while only one variable (enjoy luxury travel) below 0.5 was deleted. Thus, 27 variables were proposed
to retain and generate a five-factor solution, explaining 75.55% of the total variance. The factor
loading ranged from 0.56–0.84. Furthermore, retained variables were further verified by the
method EFA to gain main variables for each factor. Specifically, all variables for personal values
were retained with loading values above 0.6 (Table 6). However, since this solution is not completely
in conformity with the conceptual framework given above, further EFA processes would be con-
ducted to extract sub-factors for push motivation and transformation dimension. The variables of
both two dimensions can be separated into two factors and the energetic variable was deleted
because it crossed the two factors with factor loading of 0.585 and 0.606, respectively. The results
for sub-factors were shown in Table 6.

Model construct and amended framework

The reliability of the new model was tested after deleting representative variables, including one
push motivation variable (enjoy luxury journey), and one transformation variable (feel energetic
and passionate). The values of Cronbach’s alphas (α) were shown in Table 7. Based on the results
of EFA, we used SEM to establish a factor model derived from the aforementioned 26 variables to
further detect if these factors affect tourists’ perception (Figure 3).
According to Figure 3, original four main factors were divided into seven sub-factors according to
factor analysis to evaluate the variables in more detail. As regression results show, the adjusted R² =
0.624 was higher than the previous regression equation (Table 8). The new independent variables
could explain the dependent variables to 62.4%. The ANOVA significance value and the VIF did
not have dramatic variation.
Regression analysis suggested personal value, internal motivation and transcendence to be sub-
factors of transformation. They had significant effects on spiritual tourism, while attributes, exciting
motivation, escape and relaxation and behavioural intention had insignificant effects. Similar to the
methods mentioned above, relationships between sub-factors were also analysed by regression
analysis. Results indicated that personal value had significant effects on motivation, transformation
and spiritual tourism. Meanwhile, spiritual tourism was significantly affected by personal value,
motivation which consisted of internal motivation and attributes except for exciting motivation
and transformation. There was no significant relationship between behavioural intention and spiri-
tual tourism. Figure 4 shows a preliminary model drawing relationship between different factors and
variables (Table 9).

Table 5. Regression results of main factors.

X/Y Main factor No. of variable Standardized coefficient β T-value Sig. VIF
Dependent variable Spiritual tourism 1
Independent variables Constant 1 −2.277 .026
Personal value 9 .162 1.942 .056 1.201
Motivation 9 .119 1.064 .291 2.166
Transformation 5 .566 4.412 .000 2.840
Behavioural intention 3 .097 .986 .328 1.679
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 11

Table 6. The results of EFA for personal value, push motivation and transformation.
Factor or item Loading Eigenvalue Variance explained (%)
Personal value 5.545 61.612
Friendliness 0.884
Freedom 0.834
Be-respected 0.822
Self-esteem 0.822
Security 0.817
Self-fulfilment 0.802
Enjoyment 0.772
Belongness 0.652
Achievement 0.620
Total 61.612
Push motivation
Factor 1: Internal Motivation 2.778 39.681
Know about myself 0.795
Peace 0.762
Travel with RF 0.649
Relieve pressure 0.647
Factor 2: Exciting Motivation 1.527 21.82
Excitement 0.835
Adventure 0.833
Share travel experience 0.538
Total 61.501
Transformation
Factor 1: transcendence 3.634 60.574
More tolerance 0.903
Know more about myself 0.871
More grateful 0.852
Factor 2: Escape and relaxation 1.125 18.746
Relaxing 0.909
More peace 0.849
Total 79.32

Model adjustment by R Studio

Some restrictions emerged from constructing a relatively optimal model by SPSS, because regression
analysis could only test two factors concurrently. Therefore, this research decided to construct a
model optimization through R Studio using forward selection and verifying through backward selec-
tion to eliminate redundant variables. The comparison of the two selection models is shown in Table
10.
Therefore, forwarding selection and backward elimination concluded that the optimal model of
this research is to evaluate the relationship between personal value, internal motivation, transcen-
dence, and behavioural intention (loyalty) and tourists’ perception of spiritual tourism.

Model analysis
Table 11 represents the statistical results of the model. The model confirmed the relationship pro-
posed after SPSS regression analysis. The fit indices of the structural model suggested a good fit
to the data and all indices were within an acceptable range for collecting samples. The empirical
model described a strong relationship between the factors.

Table 7. Cronbach’s alpha after deleting variables.

Model No. of variables Cronbach’s alpha
Initial model 28 0.902
Deletion of ‘enjoy luxury journey’ 27 0.907
Deletion of ‘feel energetic and passionate’ 26 0.900
12 F. ZHENG ET AL.

Figure 3. New hypothetical structure by deleting two variables after EFA.

Table 8. Fitting degree of the new model

R R-square Adjusted R² F-value Freedom Significance DW value
.813a .661 .624 17.568 70 .000b 2.083
a
Dependent variable: Regard as spiritual tourism.
b
Predictive variables: Constant, personal value, internal motivation, exciting motivation, attributes, escape, transcendence,
behavioural intention.

As shown in Figure 5 and Table 12, all dimensions of specific variables had positive and strong
relationships with the corresponding four factors. Also, there were positive relationships between
independent factors and dependent factors. Furthermore, there was a positive relationship
between personal value, internal motivation, transcendence and behavioural intention. However,
there was no significant negative correlations between personal value, transcendence, internal

Figure 4. Model showing relationships between the factors.

 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 13

Table 9. ANOVA results of sub-factors.

X/Y Main factor Sub-factor Sta. β T-value Variable num. Sig. VIF
Dependent variable Spiritual tourism Spiritual tourism 1
Independent variables Constant Constant −2.245 1 .028
Personal value Personal value .207 2.437 9 .018 1.344
Motivation Attributes −.087 −.838 2 .405 2.331
Internal motivation .272 2.721 4 .008 2.023
Exciting motivation −.048 −.589 3 .558 1.861
Transformation Transcendence .402 3.820 3 .000 1.231
Escape and relax .130 1.266 2 .210 2.057
Behavioural intention Behavioural intention .209 1.864 3 0.067 1.963

motivation and behavioural intention. Therefore, the relationships of the above two dimensions
were rejected and not established.

In-depth interviews
The in-depth interviews targeted first-visit and revisit tourists to collect more information about
tourist expectations and perceptions of spiritual tourism in Tibet. Results showed that if tourists
experience transcendence during their journey, this would benefit their spiritual development
and increase their loyalty to the destination, thus encouraging their post-travel behavioural
intentions.
One of the questions in the interview asked about the most impressive experience during their
trip to Tibet. One of the interviewees, Xing, talked about the natural and pure scenery in Mount
Everest in the winter. She was astonished by the starry night skies and felt an immediate sense of
relief. Another interviewee, Zhao, found the local community to be the most impressive aspect of
his trip. He found Tibetans to be simple, unsophisticated, serious and pious followers of their
faith. His previous impression of Tibet was more or less a ‘primitive, backward place’. However,
this perception was completely changed, and he was deeply touched by the locals’ pure-hearted-
ness and kindness, which made him feel purified. Xiao shared similar feelings about local Tibetans
and Buddhist culture. She was impressed by their indigent persistence to practice their beliefs
every day by chanting and praying. Their unconcern about worldly fame and fortune instantly
made her emotional.
As for motivation for their first travel to Tibet, interviewee Rong said she travelled to Tibet primar-
ily because of work. Meanwhile, Yang wanted to experience first-hand the Tibetan lifestyle as
described in a book he read. For those who made return trips to Tibet, Lan travelled there three
times because of the abundant natural resources, religion and attractive culture of Tibet. All of
these interviewees also wanted to further explore, learn about Tibet on each of their visits, and
be inspired by its culture.

Table 10. Comparison between two models.

Formula = ST∼PV + IM + TRANS + ESC Formula = ST∼PV + IM + TRANS + LOY
Item Sig. Item Sig.
Personal value 0.007** Personal value 0.012*
Internal motivation 0.031* Internal motivation 0.001**
Transcendence 0.00*** Transcendence 0.000***
Escape 0.054 Loyalty 0.017*
Reference Value Reference Value
Residual stand error 0.7516 Residual stand error 0.7405
Adjusted R-squared 0.6168 Adjusted R-squared 0.628
F-test 29.17 F-test 30.55
P-value 5.66e-14 P-value 2.157e-14
14 F. ZHENG ET AL.

Table 11. Structural equation model-indices of fit.

df P-Value CMIN/df GFI IFI CFI RMSEA
163 .000 1.841 .724 .852 .848 .110

This study also focused on spiritual transformation of tourists, including reflections, psychological
change and spiritual improvement. Attention was also given to the causes and inspiration of such
transformation. The interviewee Xu described a change in mentality after travelling to Tibet. She
was struggling with her studies before making the trip but felt significantly relieved post-trip. She
realized that it is often too easy to us to drift with the waves brought on by daily struggles and
learned to stay calm and peaceful. Similarly, Han also agreed that spiritual tourism in Tibet enriched
his inner world and changed his worldview.
In the open-ended interviews, respondents provided keywords about their experience and
opinion towards Tibet. A word cloud was created based on these keyboards, as displayed in
Figure 6. Terms like ‘natural resources’, ‘culture’, ‘peace’, ‘calm’, ‘self-development’ were most
common. Interviewees held positive opinions of Tibet and felt that their inner emotions and
spirits were lifted. This could suggest that although some tourists were initially attracted by
Tibet’s natural and cultural resources, during the trip they experienced personal improvement
and as well as their understanding of ordinary life.

Discussion
By explaining the definitions and comparing pilgrimage, religious tourism and spiritual tourism, this
study has highlighted their distinctive and overlapping characteristics. The present research has
understood pilgrimage as the oldest form of tourism undertaken with difficulties and challenges
under the goal of religious transformation. Religious tourism occurs in religious places with religious
and cultural tourism resources that may be appealing to both religious and nonreligious tourists.
Spiritual tourism does not necessarily occur in the absence of religious reasons, but involves
travel that allows religious and nonreligious tourists to experience spiritual significance and personal
growth in destinations that may be sacred or secular. Evidently, there are overlapping characteristics

Figure 5. Results of structure equation model by AMOS.

 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 15

Table 12. Coefficient relationship between factors.

Relationship Estimate Coefficient P-Value
ST↔PV .260 .250 .031
ST↔TRANS .581 .590 .000
ST↔INTNOT .345 .440 .003
ST↔LOY .393 .470 .001
TRANS↔LOY .473 .640 .000
PV↔TRANS -.131 -.140 .176
PV↔INTNOT .231 .320 .042
INTMOT↔LOY -.085 −1.40 .213
Note: ST = Sustainable Tourism; PV = Personal Value; INTMOT = Internal Motivation; TRANS = Transcendence; LOY = Behavioural
Intention.

with tourist experience of spiritual improvements, while differences exist in ways of travel, desti-
nations and target segments.
Among the factors, transcendence and behavioural intention were identified to have the stron-
gest relationship with a high positive coefficient, indicating that tourists who experienced mental
satisfaction and self-development would have a positive reaction and behaviour towards the desti-
nation. Moreover, it can be observed from the structural model that the item ‘know about myself’
under internal motivation and ‘know more about myself’ under transcendence largely influenced
their corresponding factors. It is also assumed that tourists who have strong internal motivation
to know about themselves would experience more transcendence after taking a trip that allowed
such self-exploration.
This study showed an insignificant relationship between motivation and behavioural intention,
which corresponds with previous research on consumer behaviour of Chinese outbound tourists
(Li & Cai, 2012). Moreover, the relationship between personal value and transcendence was insignifi-
cant. A possible reason is that personal value is a factor about general sense that could not signifi-
cantly influence transcendence in the dimension of transformation.

Suggestions for the development of spiritual tourism in Tibet

Findings from the literature review, statistical analysis, and interviews in this study propose several
recommendations on developing and expanding the niche market for spiritual tourism. In the

Figure 6. Word Cloud collected from open-end interviews.

16 F. ZHENG ET AL.

abundance of research articles about tourism in Tibet, most of them were written by non-Tibetans,
demonstrating outsiders’ enthusiasm and interest in tourism development and research in Tibet.
Researchers were relatively well-educated, knowledgeable about research methods, and more
empathetic towards Tibetan culture (Wu & Pearce, 2012). However, indigenous Tibetans are more
familiar with their tourism resources in the natural, cultural, spiritual and religious dimensions.
Tibet is a mysterious place attracting people from around the globe. If local Tibetans can actively
engage in tourism activities and spreading their unique cultural and spiritual values, it must be ben-
eficial to raising cultural awareness and furthering tourism development of their region.
Rapid development in Tibet also propelled the local government to seek academic support for
policy manoeuvres (Wu & Pearce, 2012). Research done solely and collaboratively by government
officials, entrepreneurs and academics are few (Wu & Pearce, 2012). However, developing a compre-
hensive tourism strategy, especially for spiritual tourism, requires close communication and partici-
pation of various sectors. Promotion of Tibet’s ethnic and religious ideology may enable tourists to
better understand and immerse themselves in Tibetan culture and religion. Still, there is a growing
fear of spiritual degradation caused by development projects surrounding mass tourism. Further-
more, many visitors were drawn to the tourism patterns of spiritual cosmopolitanism, heritage
tourism and local livelihood interactions, which raises concerns for the vulnerable identity and
status of Buddhists minorities (Geary, 2008). Therefore, more attention must be dedicated to
prevent local communities’ voices from being marginalized and ensure that the development of a
pilgrimage centre would align with religious importance and Buddhist sectarian interests. Previous
studies (Woodside, 2015) have found religious rituals to foster community-based tourism initiatives.
This research also found spiritual tourists to focus more on protecting the environment and respect-
ing local culture. From in-depth interviews, many visitors were able to overcome the tourist gaze and
were willing to immerse themselves into the pure environment to understand the local culture. Pre-
trip education on culture and religion could be a way to equip tourists with the knowledge, mental-
ity and attitude needed for a culturally sensitive destination like Tibet.

The current situation of global pandemic

Since 2020, the world has been struggling with the COVID-19 global pandemic. The implementation
of lockdown measures and flight bans dealt a particularly hard blow to the tourism industry. Besides
international travel, domestic tourism also suffered major losses, seeing a dramatic reduction of
tourist numbers accounting for approximately a trillion yuan in tourism revenue. Under the above
circumstance, mass tourism has undergone the biggest impacts, and niche tourism would be
more addressed. With various stressors in work and life, people desire to travel far beyond their
normal and routine lifestyle. Tourism is no longer a simple leisure activity for tourists, since they
have diverse needs. More people have a desire to pursue travel experiences with spiritual and cul-
tural meaning. Tourists adjust to a condition by transferring time and space to a new and strange
situation. Spiritual tourism is in line with the above wants and needs by offering the spiritual refresh-
ment and relaxation sought after by tourists. We can also assume that the increase in the pace and
stresses of life would greatly impact how pronounced the travel transformation is for tourists
engaged in spiritual tourism. Therefore, we can predict that the tourism industry is experiencing
its lowest and most challenging situation, but potential demands and needs will experience retalia-
tory growth due to current travel restrictions.
However, this global health crisis can be viewed as an opportunity for tourism development when
restrictions are lifted and global movement bounces back. It is necessary to advance market pen-
etration and boost tourism demand from different aspects. Establishing an optimized, effective
and high-quality tourism management model is essential to the transition of the tourism industry
from a high-speed, intensive growth sector into one that offers high quality, customized and
unique experiences. In conclusion, tourism is an indispensable leisure activity. The tourism industry,
and in this case, spiritual tourism in Tibet, should seize this opportunity to improve their tourism
 CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM 17

product and services in various dimensions to improve their core competitiveness and expand tour-
ist’s coverage from different directions.

Conclusion
This study provided a procedure to construct a conceptual model of spiritual tourism with elements
on different layers. Theoretically, this study attempted to incorporate personal value, motivation,
transformation and behavioural intention into the study of spiritual tourism and empirically
tested the relationships among these factors. While many researchers have studied personal value
for its effects on motivations and other factors, this paper examined its direct linkage to spiritual
tourism. The integration of this model may be considered as an optimal structural model by deleting
irrelevant variables through three statistical methods reducing error and bias.
This research comprehensively explained tourists’ experience of spiritual tourism in many dimen-
sions. Some studies have shown that people who experience spiritual tourism or focus on religious
and cultural content and personal development are mostly well-educated and have high income. Yet
the questionnaire in this research did not collect information on tourist income, so it could not use
quantitative analysis to illustrate the relationship between income and spiritual demand. We can also
assume that high-income groups would have higher spending in Tibet. Subsequent research may
study the effects of tourist spending on local economic development; specifically, consumption
habits and consumption potential of spiritual tourism.
Since spiritual tourism is related to religious tourism, many studies have found that religious
factors impact habits, attitudes, personal values and decisions. Therefore, more information on reli-
gious segmentation is needed to analyse whether distinctive religions may welcome different motiv-
ations and perceptions of spiritual tourism. In addition, beautiful scenery could significantly
influence tourists’ spiritual world. Some research may study the relationship between natural
resources and spiritual tourism and how nature affects tourists’ inner worlds and spirituality. Since
spiritual tourism is a relatively new concept in the tourism field, this niche market has yet to
mature and deserves more attention.
Because of the global pandemic, there were some challenges in questionnaire distribution, and
we could only collect data through a social networking platform. Moreover, as few have travelled to
Tibet given its remote location, harsh weather conditions and expensive travel expenditure, the
sample size used in this study was limited. The collected sample was also skewed towards certain
age groups, educational backgrounds and religions. Future research could look into tourist demo-
graphics and analyse the characteristics, attitudes and perceptions of spiritual tourism for
different groups of people.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Chung-Shing Chan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3847-3781

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