From Affective Atmosphere and Tourists’ Memorable Tourism Experience to Their Loyalty Towards Rural Tourist Destinations: A Hybrid SEM–fsQCA Approach

Rural tourism strategies in underdeveloped countries have gained popularity in recent years due to rural tourism’s significance in the sustainable development of society. Thus, by integrating affective event theory in the context of rural tourism, the present study underscores the formation of tourists’ loyalty to rural tourist destinations based on the perspectives of affective atmosphere and memorable tourism experience for rural tourist destinations. Drawing on 541 valid samples from tourists to Xidi and Hongcun, which are famous rural tourist destinations in China, both SEM and fsQCA were employed to capture the linear effects and configurational pathways leading to tourists’ loyalty to rural tourist destinations. The results indicate that conviviality, therapeutics, authenticity, and playfulness significantly enhance tourists’ memorable tourism experience, which subsequently strengthens their loyalty to rural tourist destinations. Complementing these findings, the fsQCA results reveal multiple equifinal and causally asymmetrical configurations associated with high loyalty. Through the combined use of symmetric and asymmetric approaches, this study offers a more holistic understanding of the formation of destination loyalty and provides theoretically grounded and practically meaningful insights for rural tourism development and strategic destination management.