Perceived Restorativeness of Visits to Cultural Heritage Sites

This study aimed to examine whether a causal relationship exists between perceived restorativeness and emotional healing, visitor satisfaction, and intention to revisit with respect to a visit to the Seooreung Shrine in South Korea. Attention restorativeness theory claims that four factors (being away, fascination, extent, and compatibility) induce a restorative environment. The results of the conducted survey support the four factors of attention restorativeness theory. Two distinct groups were identified and differences were discovered between the groups with respect to satisfaction and perceived restorativeness. Emotional healing exerted more influence on intention to revisit than visitor satisfaction. This study delivers a significant outcome as pioneer research on healing tourism by discovering emotional healing as a precedent variable to visitor satisfaction and intention to revisit in the area of cultural heritage tourism.