Understanding visitor behavior in sustainable agritourism: A structural equation modeling approach in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

This study examines the effects of sustainable agritourism practices on tourists’ destination image perception, perceived value, and behavioral intention in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. While agritourism is widely known as a major strategy for rural development, environmental conservation, and cultural protection, there has been little research on tourists’ psychological and behavioral responses to sustainability in Southeast Asia. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior and value-based tourism models, the study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze data from 265 organic farm and eco-village tourists. Results indicate a strong but counterintuitive negative effect of sustainable actions on destination image, suggesting that tourists might think eco-measures equate to lower comfort or more traditional conditions. Furthermore, neither destination image nor perceived value predicted behavioral intention significantly, supporting the existence of an attitude–behavior gap. The SEM fitted extremely well (CFI = 0.988, RMSEA = 0.047), validating model reliability. Theoretically, the study rebuts assumptions about sustainability always proving beneficial to the attitudes of tourists and highlights the context-specific nature of visitor decisions. Pragmatically, it underscores agritourism operators’ pivotal role in aligning environmental actions with tourists’ expectations of comfort, beauty, and experiential value—all key to developing sustainable tourism and rural development targets.