Accessible tourism for tourists with visual impairment: the role of auditory perception in shaping behavioral attitudes

Purpose With 257 million people worldwide living with visual impairments, this group constitutes a significant niche market in the tourism industry. While existing studies indicate that people with visual impairments rely on compensatory mechanisms during travel, how these mechanisms specifically shape behavioral attitudes remains unexplored. This study aims to address this gap by examining how auditory perception – their primary internal compensation – affects their behavioral attitudes, offering theoretical and practical insights for accessible tourism. Design/methodology/approach Based on a review of the literature and grounded in the sensory marketing perspective, a theoretical model was constructed positing that the tourism soundscape influences the revisit intention of people with visual impairments through the mediating effects of authenticity perception (cognition) and place attachment (affect). This model was tested using structural equation modeling with data from 295 people with visual impairments in China. Findings The results show that the tourism soundscape significantly influences revisit intention by enhancing authenticity perception and place attachment. This underscores the critical role of optimizing the tourism soundscape for accessible tourism development. Originality/value This study reveals the specific mechanism through which the tourism soundscape affects revisit intention, addressing the research gap on how compensatory activities concretely influence behavioral attitudes. By demonstrating the role of auditory stimuli in internal compensation, it provides valuable insights for sensory marketing perspective and accessible tourism practice.