The role of emotional solidarity in the relationship between tourists’ experiences and sustainable development practices: an empirical study at two Indigenous tourism destinations in Taiwan

This study applies the stimulus–organism–response framework to examine how tourist experiences influence emotional solidarity and sustainable development practice at two Indigenous destinations in Taiwan, Tjuvecekadan and Wutai. Data were collected through a systematic questionnaire survey of overnight visitors between November 2022 and April 2023, yielding 422 valid responses from Tjuvecekadan and 460 from Wutai. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, and bias-corrected bootstrapping to test the hypothesised direct and mediating relationships. The results show that existential authentic experience significantly influenced emotional solidarity at both sites (β = 0.43 in Wutai, β = 0.43 in Tjuvecekadan; p < 0.001). In Tjuvecekadan, cultural experience also significantly influenced emotional solidarity (β = 0.49; p < 0.001), whereas nature experience did not. In Wutai, nature experience significantly influenced emotional solidarity (β = 0.49; p < 0.001), whereas cultural experience did not. Emotional solidarity significantly influenced sustainable development practice at both destinations (β = 0.46 in Wutai, β = 0.38 in Tjuvecekadan; p < 0.001) and mediated the effects of tourist experiences in a destination-specific manner. These findings indicate that the formation of emotional solidarity and its role in sustainable development practice are conditioned by destination context rather than operating through a single universal pathway.