This study investigates the interrelationships among tourist motivation, tourist experience, perceived value, and satisfaction in shaping support for sustainable tourism at the Maeklong Railway Market in Samut Songkhram Province, Thailand. As a distinctive cultural landscape where traditional market activities coexist with active railway operations, the site offers a highly immersive tourist experience. Despite its popularity, limited empirical research has examined how such unique settings influence pro-sustainability behavior. Data were collected from 400 visitors using cluster and convenience sampling. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the proposed relationships. The results indicate that perceived value strongly influences tourist motivation (β = 0.837), which significantly enhances the tourist experience (β = 0.646). Tourist experience positively affects satisfaction (β = 0.452), while satisfaction is the strongest predictor of support for sustainable tourism (β = 0.382). The model demonstrates strong explanatory power (R2 = 0.77). The originality of this research lies in modeling the sequential relationships among perceived value, motivation, experience, and satisfaction within a living heritage context. The findings highlight the importance of delivering authentic and meaningful experiences to strengthen visitor support for sustainability and heritage preservation.
Luekveerawattana et al. (Sun,) studied this question.