ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1604948
The Impact of Active Sport Tourism Experiencescape Perception on Tourists' Psychological Recovery: The Mediating Role of Flow Experience
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong Sport University, Jinan, China
- 2Graduate School of Education, Shandong Jinan, China
- 3Sports and Leisure College, Shandong Jinan, China
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Based on the SOR framework, this study addresses the widening mental-health challenges-such as anxiety and depression-among urban populations in China amid rapid urbanization. While previous research has highlighted the " therapeutic " function of tourism, few have examined the specific mechanism by which the experiencescape of active sport tourism influences psychological recovery via flow experience. To fill this gap, we propose an "S: active sport tourism experiencescape -O: flow experience -R: psychological recovery" research model. Using a structural equation model, we analyzed survey data from 288 active sport tourism participants, categorizing the experiencescape into six dimensions: social, functional, natural, cultural, sensory, and hotel culture. The results indicate that: The active sport tourism experiencescape exerts significant positive effects on both flow experience and psychological recovery, with a partial mediating role of flow experience on the latter.The six experiencescape dimensions differ in their impacts: social, natural, sensory, and hotel culture dimensions directly and positively influence psychological recovery, whereas functional and cultural dimensions influence psychological recovery only indirectly through flow experience. Flow experience partially mediates the effects of social, natural, sensory, and hotel culture dimensions on psychological recovery, but fully mediates the effects of the functional and cultural dimensions. This study is the first to systematically unpack the mechanisms of the sixdimensional experiencescape in active sport tourism, enriching theoretical understanding of sport tourism, flow experience, and psychological recovery, and offering practical guidance for destination managers to optimize experiencescape elements and enhance visitors' mental and physical well-being.
Keywords: sports tourism, experiencescape, Psychological recovery, flow experience, SEM
Received: 03 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, wang and ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: teng ma, Shandong Sport University, Jinan, China
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