Purpose This study aims to investigate how sensory impressions affect tourists' overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the context of natural heritage tourism and to evaluate the moderating role of gender in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach The study collected 393 questionnaires, employing a higher-order reflective-formative construct approach and partial least squares-structural equation modeling with multi-group analysis. Findings This reveals that sensory impressions significantly influence overall satisfaction, which in turn mediates the relationship between sensory impressions and behavioral intentions. Visual and auditory impressions are critical dimensions of the sensory impression construct in World Natural Heritage Sites (WNHSs) tourism. Gender analysis reveals that sensory impressions have a greater influence on revisit intentions among male tourists than among female tourists, whereas overall satisfaction is a stronger predictor of revisit intention among female tourists. Practical implications This enhances destination practitioners' awareness of designing sensory experiences for WNHSs based on gender-specific market segmentation, thereby increasing the tourists' revisits and recommendations. Originality/value It contributes to the literature by elucidating gender differences in sensory impressions and their impact on tourist behavior at WNHSs. Furthermore, adopting a higher-order formative construct approach underscores the importance of each sensory dimension in enhancing tourists' satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the context of natural heritage tourism.
Zheng et al. (Tue,) studied this question.