Linking visitors’ push motivation to emotional involvement and their satisfaction towards sustainable farm tourism

This study explores how visitors’ push motivations—novelty and prestige, Relaxation, and relationship enhancement—influence emotional involvement and overall Satisfaction within the context of sustainable farm tourism in Wayanad, Kerala. Primary data were collected from 385 visitors across five selected sustainable farm tourism sites using a structured questionnaire. The proposed research model was tested using PLS-SEM approach in Smart PLS 4.0. The findings indicate that all push motivations significantly and positively affect emotional involvement, with relationship enhancement exerting the strongest influence, followed by novelty and prestige and Relaxation. Emotional involvement was found to have a substantial positive effect on visitor satisfaction. In addition, push motivations directly influence Satisfaction, with relationship enhancement and Relaxation emerging as key predictors, while novelty and prestige show a comparatively weaker yet significant effect. Mediation analysis confirms that emotional involvement partially mediates the relationship between push motivations and Satisfaction. The study highlights the importance of emotionally engaging, socially interactive, and relaxing farm tourism experiences in enhancing visitor satisfaction and promoting sustainable rural tourism development.