How Experience-Oriented Cultural Tourism Shapes Tourists’ Perceived Sustainable Value: The Roles of Cultural Immersion and Socio-Technical Empowerment

Culture-tourism integration shifts sustainable development from resource-centric to experiential enrichment, deepening engagement but risking cultural commodification and destination resilience. Perceived sustainable tourism value is critical for resilience, yet how experience-oriented cultural tourism (ECT) shapes tourists’ perceived sustainable value in socio-technical empowered contexts remains underexplored. This study empirically tests a research model to investigate how ECT shapes perceived sustainable value by proposing cultural immersion (encompassing cultural perception and participation) as the mediators, while investigating the moderating roles of technology empowerment and service empowerment. Using survey data from tourists in Northwest China and structural equation modeling, results show that the three ECT dimensions positively influence both cultural perception and participation, which in turn enhance tourists’ perceived sustainable value. Technology and service empowerment exhibit distinct moderating roles in facilitating cultural immersion. This study uncovers pathways from cultural engagement to sustainable value perceptions, offering theoretical and practical implications for destination management.