Survey reveals enhanced individual performance from experiential learning in rural tourists, suggesting rural travel provides valuable informal education.
Key Points
To examine how experiential learning and perceived mental health mediate and drive post-visit performance among rural tourists.
Surveyed 308 rural tourists in Portugal.
Applied an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) framework incorporating experiential learning, word-of-mouth, and perceived mental health.
Perceived mental health significantly mediated the relationship between word-of-mouth recommendations and individual post-visit performance.
Experiential learning emerged as the strongest direct predictor of tourists' post-visit performance, establishing rural travel as an informal educational experience.