EXPRESS: Tourist distance adaptability: Scale development and validation

While prior research has emphasized external factors such as cultural or climatic distance, limited attention has been given to tourists’ intrinsic capability to adapt. This study introduces the concept of tourist distance adaptability, defined as tourists’ capability to adapt to multidimensional cross-national distance. Grounded in experiential learning theory, this study develops and validates a tourist distance adaptability scale, integrating four aspects: awareness (sensitivity, risk management), attitudes (positivism, tolerance), skills (flexibility, adjustment, learning ability), and emotion (emotional response). Results show that tourist distance adaptability contributes to increased tourist satisfaction, which in turn enhances revisit intention and positive word-of-mouth communication. The scale offers practical value for market segmentation and experience design and advances theoretical understanding by highlighting tourists’ active agency and its implications for overseas travel decisions.