Research on the Optimization of Mongolia's Cross-border Tourism Services Based on Chinese Tourists' Satisfaction

Cross-border tourism satisfaction remains a critical concern for destination managers,particularly in emerging travel corridors such as China–Mongolia, where limited empiricalevidence exists on the mechanisms linking service and infrastructure factors to touristexperiences. Grounded in Expectation–Confirmation Theory (ECT), this study examines theeffects of tourism service quality (TSQ), destination infrastructure quality (DIQ), and pricefairness perception (PFP) on Chinese tourists’ satisfaction (CTS), with perceived destinationvalue (PDV) as a mediator and cross-border tourism cooperation effectiveness (CTCE) as amoderator. A total of 400 valid responses were collected from Chinese outbound tourists whohad visited Mongolia in the past twelve months. Data were analysed using partial least squaresstructural equation modelling (SEM-PLS) in SmartPLS to assess measurement reliability,validity, and structural relationships. Results indicate that TSQ significantly influences PDV(H1: O = 0.518, T = 6.084, p < 0.001), DIQ positively affects PDV (H2: O = 0.199, T = 2.025,p = 0.043), and PFP positively impacts PDV (H3: O = 0.270, T = 4.908, p < 0.001). PDVdemonstrates a mediating effect on the relationships between TSQ and CTS (H9: competitivepartial mediation, T = 3.027, p = 0.002), DIQ and CTS (H10: full mediation, T = 1.765, p =0.078), and PFP and CTS (H11: competitive partial mediation, T = 2.901, p = 0.004). Directeffects on CTS were significant for TSQ (H5: T = 3.418, p = 0.001) and PFP (H7: T = 2.500, p= 0.012), but not for DIQ (H6: T = 1.049, p = 0.294), while CTCE did not significantly moderatethe PDV–CTS relationship (H8: T = 0.145, p = 0.885). These findings underscore the pivotalrole of perceived destination value as a psychological conduit translating service quality,infrastructure, and pricing into satisfaction, offering theoretical advancement of ECT in crossborder tourism contexts. Practically, the study guides destination managers to prioritise servicequality and price fairness to enhance tourist satisfaction and informs strategies for improvingexperiential outcomes in international travel corridors..