How does the destination digital environment promote tourist well-being in heritage tourism?

Purpose This study aims to examine how the destination digital environment (DDE) empowers and engages tourists during their visit to a mega heritage tourism site – the Palace Museum of Beijing, an information-intensive destination – and evaluate how it ultimately promotes tourist well-being. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a quantitative design, with a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection (n = 492). Structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. Findings The results demonstrated positive associations between DDE and tourist satisfaction as well as their well-being. The results also showed that tourists’ empowerment and engagement played chain and parallel mediating roles between DDE and well-being, as well as between DDE and satisfaction. Practical implications The findings provide practical implications to destination management organizations and tourism operators in further utilizing and synthesizing the use of digital services. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to connect DDE and tourist well-being. It is also a pioneering study in identifying the mediating role of empowerment and engagement in tourist experience under DDE.