Exploring the hidden potential of Bali’s wellness tourism: Which factors encourage tourists to visit?

Abstract

The current research proposes a modified and extended Theory of Planned Behavior model by adding three crucial determinants in tourism management, namely wellness motivation, pull-factor motivation, and tourist value, to predict tourist behavior towards wellness tourism destinations in Bali. Empirical data was obtained via online surveys. A purposive sampling technique was implemented, with a total of 323 domestic tourist respondents which were collected and analyzed in this research. Data was analyzed using a structural equation model (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that wellness motivation, pull-factor motivation, and tourist value were significant determinants for predicting tourists’ intentions to visit wellness tourism destinations. Moreover, tourists’ attitudes are significantly influenced by pull motivation and tourist value. The results also showed that subjective norms and perceived behavioral control failed to predict tourists’ visit intentions. Implications and suggestions for future research are explained.

Keywords:

• theory of planned behavior
• pull motivation
• tourist value
• wellness motivation
• visit intention
• wellness destination

1. Introduction

The 2020 pandemic was horrific to the tourism sector. The collapse of this sector began when the COVID-19 virus spread around the world resulting in a complete halt to almost all tourism activities. The report published by UNWTO demonstrated a drastic decrease in tourist arrivals which had reached 94% globally (UNWTO, 2021). The Central Bureau of Statistics also announced an extreme decline of 99.9% in tourist arrivals in Bali (Central Bureau of Statistics of Bali Province, 2020). This tragic event has become a remarkable lesson in history that provides valuable information and new insights for tourism actors.

The post-pandemic transformation has unlocked new opportunities in tourism market segments, particularly introducing wellness tourism, which started to rise significantly (Hudson et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2017). Wellness tourism can be defined as a holistic journey associated with the pursuit of improving health, maintaining personal well-being, and increasing the quality of life, including physical, psychological, and spiritual health, through various activities such as the attending of spas, Pilates & yoga classes, mineral springs baths, and others (He et al., 2021; Yeung & Johnston, 2020).

Globally, the wellness tourism market experienced a substantial growth of $821.75 billion in 2022 and it is expected to reach $2.1 trillion in 2023 with an annual growth rate of 12.42% from 2023 to 2030 (Markets, 2023). The rise of public awareness towards the importance of creating a healthy lifestyle is believed to be the major driver of the current market development (Widhiasthini et al., 2023; Yu et al., 2021). Wellness tourism in Indonesia is rooted in natural resources and cultural diversity, which offers a variety of healing experiences for the mind, body, and spirit. Bali has been known for having luxurious and eco-friendly wellness retreats. Along with sustainable development projects, Bali has great potential to further develop it’s wellness tourism. Bali should focus more on two main aspects of this market in order to expand it’s wellness tourism, including the attractiveness of destinations and luring more domestic tourists.

Domestic tourists are considered capable of making a major contribution to helping the recovery of the tourism sector (Hartini & Fafurida, 2021; UNWTO, 2020). Domestic tourist arrivals to Bali were found to be more stable and higher than foreign tourists from year to year, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing the existing potential of this market, it is important to learn how to attract more targeted domestic tourists by understanding tourist behavior toward wellness destinations (Kabote et al., 2017; Subawa et al., 2022).

Essentially, tourists’ intention to travel is created from motivation that can form a positive attitude towards the destination, where the higher the motivation to travel, the more positive the attitude of tourists will be, which ultimately leads to a high intention in traveling to wellness destinations. Meanwhile, tourist motivation can come from external factors such as the uniqueness of wellness destinations in Bali, and internal factors including the desire to improve the quality of life which certainly encourages tourists to participate in wellness activities (Khan et al., 2017; Težak Damijanić, 2019). Furthermore, the positive attitude of tourists can also be formed through values, such as a unique experience, functional value, etc. When tourists feel that their experience has greater benefits and advantages, tourists tend to give positive evaluations which ultimately leads to greater intention to travel to these destinations (Teng & Wu, 2019). These series of linkages can create or encourage tourist intention to explore wellness tourism destinations.

Knowing the enormous potential, it is crucial to carry out in-depth research to provide a deeper understanding related to tourist behavior, which in the future can assist the government and its stakeholders in formulating appropriate strategies. Moreover, there are still few studies that raise the topic of wellness tourism which focus on Indonesia as the subject of the studies in the post-COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, the relationship between motivation, values, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and visit intention, along with the role of attitude as a mediating variable has not been studied much in the tourism literature. Thus, the purpose of this study aims to improve understanding of the determinants that can influence domestic tourists’ decisions in visiting wellness destinations in Bali. This study also aims to measure the influence of the fundamental constructs on these decisions, to analyze how wellness motivation, pull motivation, and tourists’ value influence tourists’ intention to visit wellness destinations.

2. Literature review

2.1. Theory of planned behavior

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was first developed by Ajzen (1991a), which explains that there are three constructs in predicting the intention to use an innovation: perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitudes toward behavior (Idris et al., 2017). Attitude is one of the elements of psychology that factors into behavior and explains a belief both positively and negatively regarding the object and shows the evaluation that individuals have, whether favorable or not for that behavior (Xu et al., 2022). Subjective norms indicate the perceived social pressure and perceived opinion of a significant reference, which may affect decision making whether to perform or not to perform a certain behavior (Le & Nguyen, 2022). Furthermore, it is also stated that perceived behavioral control as easy or difficult is felt in carrying out the behavior and assessed it as a reflection of previous experiences as well as anticipated obstacles. The perceived ability of tourists is greater than travel behavior if they believe that they have sufficient access to resources and opportunities.

2.2. Wellness motivation

Motivation is one of the drivers of individual behavior, especially the role of motivation as the core of tourism travel behavior, which has now become a concern among academics (Park et al., 2019). Motivation refers to the internal strength that comes from an unsatisfied need, which then becomes one of the drivers for individuals to perform certain behaviors (Lee & Kim, 2023). Based on Bočkus et al. (2023), wellness motivations are closely related to tourists’ desire to pamper and reward themselves, connect with nature, get involved in physical activities, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Besides, Gan et al. (2023) stated that wellness motivations generally arise in people who want satisfaction in their physical needs, relieve stress and dullness, and a desire to relax.

In various wellness tourism literature, motivation can be interpreted as expectations, needs, preferences, or benefits sought. Wellness itself can be identified as a series of actions implemented to pursue and maintain health, both physically and mentally. Voigt et al. (2011) developed the Benefit of Wellness Tourism Scale, which contains 12 categories of extensible benefits. The 12 categories of benefits consisted of body care and appearance, contemplation, escape, sports, self-focus and indulgence, general health and well-being, increased stimulation, learning and exploring, relaxation and stress reduction, self-image, socializing, and transcendence.

2.3. Pull motivation

The push-pull motivation theory was developed to predict future travel patterns and to be utilized in the decision-making process (Correia et al., 2013; López-Guzmán et al., 2019). The motivation formed by visitors is based on their desires and psychological needs, either internally or externally (Kim et al., 2021). Pull motivation arises from external factors, such as recommendations from the nearest relatives and attraction of tourism objects (Pektaş, 2022; Quintal et al., 2022). Pull motivation factors can be defined as external and situational motivations that include the attributes of destinations such as attraction with wellness features, spiritual cleansing from nature, and hospitality of friends at the destination. According to He and Luo (2020), the pull motivation factor is easy to access and transportation to a destination, whereas Battour et al. (2017) argued that the pull motivation factor is in the form of natural scenery that is presented and usually attracts the attention and interest of tourists.

2.4. Tourist’s value

In general, value is related to the relative comparison between the costs of delivery by the customer and the benefits of the product or service consumed. The creation of this value has been identified as one of the factors that has increased competitiveness in the service industry (Gronroos & Gummerus, 2014). This perceived value is a multifaceted concept that consists of various dimensions, namely, functional values, social values, epistemic values, and a sense of well-being (Suhartanto et al., 2020). Conceptually, this perceived value is based on equity theory, which postulates that it is a proportion of provider returns and consumer income (García-Fernández et al., 2018). Tourists’ value can also be said as an important determinant in choosing, evaluating, and influencing the level of satisfaction with a destination. In tourism, value concept development tends to be more unique because tourists try to increase value to the maximum by obtaining more benefits while spending less (Yu et al., 2023). This is because tourists will put more effort into optimizing value by receiving more benefits and spending fewer costs (Lin et al., 2017).

2.5. Visit intention

The intention to visit can be interpreted as the potential that tourists will want to visit a certain destination (Baker & Crompton, 2000). The intention to visit also means a combination of interest and the possibility of visiting a destination (Luo & Ye, 2020). According to Whang et al. (2016), the intention to visit a tourist destination can be defined by referring to the possibility felt when viewing and observing the destination within a certain period. As previously explained, the intention to visit shows tourists’ perceptions of visiting a tourist attraction within a certain period, where it can be said to be a mental process and the transformation of travel motivation into behavior.

3. Conceptual framework and hypothesis

3.1. Wellness motivation influence towards attitude, and visit intention

The conceptual TPB model is frequently applied to explore individual behaviors in various contexts, especially in understanding and predicting travel behavior. The study by Prayag et al. (2018) revealed that some dimensions of motivation have a positive and significant influence on the overall attitudes toward a destination. This follows the TPB theory developed by Ajzen and Fishbein (1973), in which one of the basic requirements to arouse attitude is motivational disposition. Levitt et al. (2019) pointed out that in culinary tourism, tourists who show a high level of motivation tend to have the most positive attitude and the strongest intention to consume local cuisine. Moreover, Meera and Vinodan (2019) demonstrated that wellness motivational factors provide a positive attitude toward wellness tourist destinations among tourists.

High levels of wellness provide good care for physical, constructive thoughts, express emotions effectively, and are creatively engaged with individual people. The dimensions of relaxation and relief motivations make the biggest contribution in encouraging tourists to venture into health and wellness facilities and services. This implies that tourists desire to rest and break away from the routine of daily life, motivates them to find health and wellness services (Zailani et al., 2021). Research by Çelik and Dedeoğlu (2019) stated that one of the dimensions of tourist motivation, namely cultural motivation, can positively influence the intention of tourists to visit, which is in line with increasing their level of satisfaction. Thus, the first two hypothesis were developed to investigate the impact of wellness motivation on tourists’ attitudes and visit intentions.

H1:

Wellness motivation significantly influences tourist’s attitude.

H2:

Wellness motivation significantly influences tourists’ visit intention

3.2. Pull motivation influence towards attitude, and visit intention

Pull factors embody the external desires of tourists or the attractiveness of destinations, which can trigger tourist intention to travel (Salsabila & Alversia, 2020). Pereira et al. (2019) proved that travel motivation, especially the dimensions of the knowledge of places and safety of natural beauty, significantly influences tourist attitudes. The higher the level of tourist motivation, the more pleasant the tourist’s attitude toward the destination. The higher the belief in pull motivation behavior, the more positive and beneficial the attitude of tourists toward the destination will be (Chuang & Lai, 2019).

Research conducted by Ermawati and Prihandono (2018) showed that pull motivation has a significant influence on visit intention, where the attraction of tourist destinations can meet the motivation of tourists, thus encouraging the intention to visit. Furthermore, Sastre and Phakdee-Auksorn (2017) also found that pull motivation significantly influenced the intention of tourists from Britain, where external factors that contributed highly towards the intention of tourist visiting restaurants and the climate of a tourist destination. Bayih and Singh (2020) revealed a direct positive relationship between Domestic Pull Motivation and tourist intentions to visit. Therefore, the following two hypothesis were developed to analyze the role of pull motivation towards tourists’ attitudes and visit intentions.

H3.

Pull motivation significantly influence tourist’s attitude

H4.

Pull motivation significantly influences a tourist’s visit intention

3.3. Tourist’s value influences towards attitude, and visit intention

Value is one of the most important constructs in consumer research, especially in the tourism industry (Lin et al., 2017). Several studies have tried to examine the relationship between tourist value and attitudes held by tourists in the tourism literature. Rousta and Jamshidi (2020) found that there is a positive influence of quality values by tourists on attitude, where this quality value is similar to the functional value which indicates the level of tourist trust in services and this level of trust can increase overall positive attitudes. Research by Choe and Kim (2018) indicates that there is a strong relationship between tourist values and their behavior, where a positive influence of epistemic values is found in the positive attitude of tourists.

The concept of value is one of the important sources used to understand the fundamental role of tourist behavior. Research conducted by Iniesta-Bonillo et al. (2016) revealed that the value felt by consumers contributes positively towards the satisfaction and increases tourist intentions to visit tourist destinations. Sharma and Nayak (2019) indicate that, in dark tourism, emotional values were found to have the strongest influence on tourist satisfaction and intention to be loyal to tourist destinations, which could be driven by the unique attributes of dark tourism. Novelty value has also been proven to play an important role in tourist intention. Based on empirical evidence, the following hypothesis were proposed to examine the effect of tourists’ value attitudes and visit intentions:

H5.

Tourist’s value significantly influences the tourist’s attitude

H6.

Tourist’s value significantly influences a tourist’s visit intention

3.4. Subjective norms and visit intention

Subjective Norms can be interpreted as the perspective of others who are considered important for individuals such as family, relatives, coworkers, friends, and many more who can influence individual decision-making. The results of the research, by Verma et al. (2018) have proven that subjective norms have a positive and significant influence on consumer intentions to visit green hotels. Furthermore, Juschten et al. (2019) discovered that subjective norms are the strongest determinant of tourist visit intentions. Shen and Shen (2020) also found a positive and significant relationship between subjective norms and attitudes toward behavior and behavioral intention. Based on the existing literature, the following hypothesis was developed to analyze the relationship between subjective norms and visit intention.

H7.

Subjective norms significantly influence tourists’ visit intention

3.5. Perceived behavioral control and visit intention

The PBC in the TPB model indicates the perceived ease or difficulty factor in conducting behavior, especially in traveling. Verma and Chandra (2018) in their research on the intention of young people to visit green hotels, proved that perceived behavioral control includes one of the important elements that can significantly affect consumers’ intentions to visit a destination. If tourists feel at ease to access information on resources, regulations, and infrastructure about a destination, they will be able to increase their intention to visit (Dash, 2020). Based on previous research, the following hypothesis was proposed to investigate the role of perceived behavioral control and visit intention:

H8.

Perceived behavioral control significantly influences tourists’ visit intention

3.6. Attitude and visit intention

Attitude refers to psychological factors regarding the positive or negative beliefs of tourists towards the evaluation results of tourist destinations (Ajzen, 1991b). Verma and Chandra (2018) found that attitude appeared as a factor that had the strongest significant effect to predicate young consumers’ intentions to visit green hotels. The study indicates that young consumer attitudes are stronger toward environmental support, where they tend to care more about the environment; thus, the environmental features adopted by the hospitality industry are considered attractive to consumers. Thus, the environmentally friendly attitude of hotel customers will affect their intention to visit, and they will even pay more for environmentally friendly hotels. Therefore, the last hypothesis was proposed to investigate the effects of tourists’ attitudes and visit intentions (See Figure 1).

Figure 1. Research Model

H9.

Tourists’ attitude significantly influences tourist’s visit intention.

4. Methodology

4.1. Study context

Bali acts as a window for national tourism and also the wheel of tourism in Indonesia, where almost the entire national economy, along with regional income in Bali, is greatly contributed by the tourism industry. As for the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a changing trend where people desire to obtain optimal physical conditions and improve their mental health. Thus, Bali has a high potential to develop wellness tourism destinations. Unfortunately, wellness destinations in Bali are not well known and receive less attention from tourists, unlike entertainment destinations, nightclubs, cafes, and others, which have always been the main destinations for tourists visiting Bali. Thus, this study aims to examine domestic tourists’ intentions to visit wellness destinations in Bali.

4.2. Measurements scales and data collection

This study applies a quantitative approach using non-probability sampling, namely purposive sampling. Each questionnaire was distributed online using Google Forms via social media which took approximately two months starting from February until April 2022. The measurement used in this research was adopted from existing measurement scales from previous research. Each item was rated on a 10-point Likert scale (1 = very strongly disagree, 10 = very strongly agree) to predict tourists’ intentions towards wellness destinations. According to the conceptual framework, seven variables were considered: attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, wellness motivation, pull motivation, tourist value, and visit intention. Wellness motivation is analyzed with items from research by Kessler et al. (2020). In addition, the scale that is used to measure pull motivation is adopted from Wen et al. (2019). Moreover, for tourist value, the scale is adopted from Williams and Soutar (2009). Meanwhile, the three constructs of TPB are measured through modified items from Magdy et al. (2020).

The target population was domestic tourists who visited Bali at least once and knew about wellness tourism destinations in Bali. Through the purposive sampling technique, 353 visitors completed the surveys; 30 responses were eliminated, and 323 responses were considered valid for further analysis. The respondents’ demographic profile based on Table 1 shows that the main characteristics of the research participants were as follows: female (258), aged between 21 and 30 (272), student (228), visited Bali one to five times (211), and interested in visiting Bali to see natural scenery (161).

Table 1. Respondents’ demographic profiles (N = 323)

Features	Category	Frequency	%
Gender	Male	65	20.1
	Female	258	79.9
Age	<20	45	13.9
	21–30	272	84.2
	31–40	3	0.9
	41–50	3	0.9
Employment	Employee	48	14.9
	Entrepreneur	19	5.9
	Student	228	70.6
	Others	28	8.7
Numbers of Visit (times)	Never	53	16.4
	1–5	211	65.3
	6–10	35	10.8
	>10	24	7.4
Future Visit	Meditation & mindfulness	23	7.1
	Learning about wellness	15	4.6
	Culinary	5	1.5
	Culture	10	3.1
	Destination attractions	23	7.1
	Nature	161	49.8
	Rest & relaxation	75	23.2
	Self-care	11	3.4

4.3. Data analysis

The data was analyzed using SmartPLS 3.2.9, with both outer and inner models. The demographic characteristics of the participants were analyzed with the help of a frequency table. The study used outer loading and AVE values to assess convergent validity, the Fornell-Larcker criterion to measure discriminant validity, and Cronbach’s alpha and Composite Reliability to analyze reliability. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was applied to measure the conceptual model and test the hypotheses.

Table 2 shows that the results of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability of each item measurement were all valid and reliable. Cronbach’s Alpha for all scales ranged from 0.816 to 0.897 and Composite Reliability ranged from 0.879 to 0.924, which were above the accepted minimum level of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2012). All factor loadings shown in Table 2 were significant, ranging from 0.664 to 0.900. The AVE value of each variable was also above the expected value (0.5) ranging from 0.569 to 0.765. The value of the square root of AVE in every construct was higher than between each pair of the construct (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Table 2. Results of validity and reliability (N = 323)

Variable	Indicator		Mean	Standard Deviation	Loadings	α	CR	AVE
Visit Intention	VI1	I want to visit wellness destinations in Bali	8.99	1.069	0.866	0.897	0.924	0.709
	VI2	If I have time, I will visit wellness destinations in Bali	8.89	1.121	0.860
	VI3	The possibility of visiting wellness destinations in Bali is high	8.63	1.369	0.785
	VI4	If I have a chance, I will visit wellness destinations in Bali	8.93	1.140	0.891
	VI5	Bali’s wellness tourism will be the next vacation spot, especially during the pandemic	8.77	1.236	0.804
Wellness Motivation	WM1	I visit Bali’s wellness destination to become fitter/improve my fitness and challenge myself physically	8.76	1.092	0.746	0.873	0.902	0.569
	WM2	I visit Bali’s wellness destination to enjoy a variety of foods that fit my dietary needs	8.25	1.222	0.664
	WM3	I visit Bali’s wellness destination to learn how to meditate and to be at peace with myself	8.64	1.232	0.709
	WM4	I visit Bali’s wellness destination to escape the demands of everyday life and feel rejuvenated	8.65	1.287	0.785
	WM5	I visited Bali’s wellness tourism to learn general ways to improve my overall health and to better manage stressful situations	8.67	1.192	0.809
	WM6	I visit Bali’s wellness tourism to focus on my own needs and to help recover from a major negative life event	8.79	1.133	0.837
	WM7	I visit Bali’s wellness destination to connect with nature and feel grounded in nature	8.88	1.185	0.718
Pull Motivation	PULL1	I visit wellness tourism in Bali to enjoy destination attractions	8.89	1.078	0.780	0.816	0.879	0.645
	PULL2	Wellness destination in Bali has beautiful scenery and unique natural beauty	9.07	1.043	0.844
	PULL3	I travel because of the ease of travel and ease of tour arrangement	8.61	1.178	0.736
	PULL4	Wellness destination in Bali has interesting cultural events and activities	8.93	1.083	0.848
Attitude	ATT1	Wellness tourism in Bali is good	9.05	1.020	0.860	0.866	0.909	0.714
	ATT2	For me, visiting wellness tourism in Bali is very valuable	8.86	1.093	0.858
	ATT3	In my opinion, the wellness destination in Bali is positive	8.91	1.078	0.841
	ATT4	In my opinion, traveling to a wellness destination in Bali is a fun activity	9.02	1.023	0.819
Subjective Norms	SN1	People whose opinions I respect would prefer if I visit wellness tourism in Bali	8.51	1.336	0.852	0.846	0.907	0.765
	SN2	Most of the people who are important to me support me in traveling to wellness destinations in Bali	8.53	1.291	0.900
	SN3	Most people who are important to me think that I should visit wellness tourism in Bali	8.41	1.363	0.871
Perceived Behavioral Control	PBC1	I have enough resources, time, and opportunity to visit wellness tourism in Bali	8.27	1.482	0.840	0.820	0.892	0.734
	PBC2	There are many support facilities available to help improve my travel experience in Bali’s wellness destinations	8.55	1.316	0.877
	PBC3	I can travel to wellness destinations in Bali	8.48	1.368	0.853
Tourist Value	TV1	I think that Bali’s wellness destinations are acceptable standard of quality	8.77	1.043	0.832	0.850	0.893	0.626
	TV2	I think that Bali’s wellness destinations are reasonably priced/have a good value for money	8.34	1.308	0.692
	TV3	I think that visiting wellness tourism in Bali gives me pleasure and makes me happy	8.80	1.073	0.836
	TV4	In my opinion, Bali’s wellness destination will improve the way a person is perceived	8.56	1.108	0.782
	TV5	In my opinion, visiting Bali’s wellness destination will fulfill my curiosity	8.74	1.042	0.803

5. Findings and discussion

5.1. Hypothesis testing

This study examined the relationship between ATT, SN, PBC, WM, PULL, TV, and VI towards wellness destinations in Bali. Table 3 presents the results of the bootstrapping analysis. The findings of this study showed that six of the nine hypothesis were supported. The results in Table 4 indicate that wellness motivation (t = 2.348, p < 0.05), pull motivation (t = 2.008, p < 0.05), tourists’ value (t = 2.346, p < 0.05), and attitude (t = 4.119, p < 0.01) were positively significant for tourists’ visit intentions, supporting hypotheses H2, H4, H6, and H9. The relationship between pull motivation (t = 5.747, p < 0.01) and tourists’ value (t = 5.850, p < 0.01) was found to be a strong determinant of tourists’ attitudes. Thus, Hypotheses H3 and H5 were accepted. In contrast, SN (t = 0.310, p > 0.05) and PBC (t = 0.516, p > 0.05) failed to explain tourists’ intention to visit Bali’s wellness destination. Furthermore, wellness failed to influence tourists’ attitudes towards wellness destinations in Bali (t = 1.009, p > 0.05). Finally, the findings revealed that attitude was successful in mediating the relationship between pull motivation and visit intention and the relationship between tourists’ value and visit intention (p < 0.05) (Table 5).

Table 3. Results of Fornell-Larcker Criterion

	ATT	PBC	PULL	SN	TV	VI	WM
Attitude	0.845
Perceived Behavioral Control	0.591	.857
Pull Motivation	0.779	.597	.803
Subjective Norms	0.627	.750	.636	0.875
Tourists Value	0.755	.725	.724	0.724	0.791
Visit Intention	0.744	.567	.720	0.582	0.701	0.842
Wellness Motivation	0.705	.630	.803	0.697	0.725	0.691	0.755

Table 4. Results of the hypothesis test

Hypothesis	Path	Coefficient	Sample Mean	Standard Deviation	T Statistics	P Values	Result
H1	WM -> ATT	0.069	.075	0.068	1.009	.313	Not Supported
H2	WM -> VI	0.163	.171	0.070	2.348	.019*	Supported
H3	PULL -> ATT	0.449	.445	0.078	5.747	.000**	Supported
H4	PULL -> VI	0.183	.180	0.091	2.008	.045*	Supported
H5	TV -> ATT	0.380	.377	0.065	5.850	.000**	Supported
H6	TV -> VI	0.180	.183	0.077	2.346	.019*	Supported
H7	SN -> VI	−0.021	−.022	0.067	0.310	.756	Not Supported
H8	PBC -> VI	0.039	.039	0.076	0.516	.606	Not Supported
H9	ATT -> VI	0.340	.332	0.082	4.119	.000**	Supported

(Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; VI: Visit Intention; WM: Wellness Motivation; PULL: Pull Motivation; ATT: Attitude; SN: Subjective Norms; PBC: Perceived Behavioral Control; TV: Tourist Value).

Table 5. Results of the specific indirect effect

Mediation Path	Coefficient	Sample Mean	Standard Deviation	T Statistics	P Values
Pull Motivation -> Attitude -> Visit Intention	0.152	0.147	0.043	3.573	0.000**
Tourists Value -> Attitude -> Visit Intention	0.129	0.125	0.038	3.367	0.001**
Wellness Motivation -> Attitude -> Visit Intention	0.023	0.026	0.025	0.931	0.352

(Note: *p value < 0.05; **p value < 0.0).

6. Discussions

This study developed a new conceptual model to predict domestic tourists visit intention towards wellness destinations by extending the TPB model with some critical factors in tourists’ decision-making, including wellness motivation, pull motivation, and tourist value. The current study also provides a deeper understanding of the role of attitude as a mediating variable.

First, the empirical results revealed that wellness motivation only succeeds in influencing tourists’ visit intentions and fails to explain their attitudes towards wellness destinations. The results of the research is in line to Zailani et al. (2021), who found that a series of dimensions of wellness motivation encouraged tourists to visit health and wellness facilities and services. This implies that tourists’ desire to rest and escape from their daily routines is a motivating factor to find health and wellness services. Furthermore, Çelik and Dedeoğlu (2019) explained that the dimensions of tourist motivation, one of which is cultural motivation, can have a positive influence on tourists’ visit intentions. On the other hand, the insignificant effect on tourists’ attitudes can be supported by the argument of Joo et al. (2019) which states that a positive attitude toward a destination will arise when tourists re-visit the destination; thus, they have a more accurate understanding of the destination than tourists who only visit once. Abbasi et al. (2021) also argued that not all tourists have a positive attitude toward tourism and are willing to visit the destination.

Secondly, the findings showed that pull motivation is critical in predicting tourists’ attitudes and visit intentions. The results follow Pereira et al. (2019) who found that travel motivation, especially the dimensions of knowledge and place, security, and natural beauty, had a significant influence on tourist attitudes. Moreover, the findings also show that a higher level of motivation for tourists to escape, knowledge and places, and natural beauty to visit certain destinations will lead to favorable attitudes towards these destinations. Tourist attitudes towards destinations are determined by tourists’ behavioral beliefs regarding the motivation to travel. Thus, the higher the belief in the motivational behavior of attraction, the more positive and beneficial the attitude of tourists towards the destination will be.

Furthermore, the current findings also follow research conducted by Ermawati and Prihandono (2018) and Sastre and Phakdee-Auksorn (2017), who found that attraction motivation has a significant influence on visiting intentions, where the attractiveness of tourist destinations can meet tourist motivation to encourage the intention to visit these tourists. Bayih and Singh (2020) also found a direct positive relationship between motivation for domestic attraction and the intention to visit tourists. Surprisingly, pull motivation makes the highest contribution to attitude. This can also be supported by the responses to the survey, which show that most of the research sample, 49.8% of domestic tourists, wish to visit Bali to see the natural scenery of wellness destinations in Bali. This implies that pull dimensions are important in tourists’ decision-making processes when visiting wellness destinations in Bali.

Third, our study also found that tourists’ value positively influences their attitudes and visit intentions. The results obtained are in line with previous research by Han et al. (2020), which found a significant relationship between personal values and tourist attitudes. It was further stated that tourists’ value effectively explains their attitudes, especially toward local food destinations. This finding also demonstrates that tourists’ values contribute significantly to attitude. In addition, the results also follow Sharma and Nayak (2019), who used five dimensions of tourist value consisting of functional, emotional, monetary, social, and novel values, which were proven to have an important role in tourist intention. This finding suggests that tourists perceive more benefits, especially when visiting wellness destinations in Bali. This can be supported by the high loading results on the TV1 and TV3 indicators, where tourists agree that wellness tourism destinations can provide value to aspects of destination quality and inner pleasure. The survey results also showed that 23.2% of tourists wanted to visit Bali for relaxation activities, such as going to spas, doing yoga, and/or meditating (7.1%). In other words, wellness destinations in Bali can provide additional value by improving the quality of life or the quality of tourists.

The empirical results also demonstrated that two TPB core constructs, SN and PBC, had an insignificant influence on tourists’ visit intention. The results of this research were consistent with Magdy et al. (2020), which indicated that subjective norms failed to influence domestic tourists’ intentions to visit destinations. This finding suggests that the support provided by closest friends or family will not affect tourists’ intention to visit wellness tourist destinations in Bali. In other words, the presence or absence of support from the surrounding environment will not affect the level of tourists’ intention to visit, given that most tourists enjoy wellness tourism that focuses on their own needs. This can be supported by the high loading values of indicators WM4, WM5, and WM6 as motivations that come from within tourists, where most of them want to calm down, escape from daily demands, feel rejuvenated, and improve individual health. Therefore, support from the people around will not affect the desire of tourists to visit wellness destinations because the main point of tourist visiting wellness destinations is to focus on self-care in mental and spiritual aspects.

The insignificant effect of PBC on visit intention is also supported by the research conducted by (Seow et al., 2017; Shen & Shen, 2020). These findings indicate that the supporting facilities, presence of resources, or opportunity to travel to wellness tourism destinations do not affect the intention of tourists to visit. It can be seen that other factors are considered to have a more important role than the existence of facilities, especially in visiting wellness tourist destinations in Bali. This also shows that although tourists have the resources or opportunities to travel to wellness if they do not intend to do so, they will refrain from wellness tourism. This is supported by the results of bootstrapping analysis which shows that the intention of tourists to visit is very strongly influenced by the motivations that attract tourists such as natural scenery, culture, cuisine, and then the motivational factors in individuals such as self-development, as well as the value factors obtained by tourists when visiting.

Furthermore, this research discovered that tourists’ attitudes significantly influenced visit intention and succeeded in mediating the effect of pull motivation on visit intention and tourists’ value on visit intention. This finding follows the research conducted by Verma and Chandra (2018), where attitude appeared as a factor that had a significant effect of the strongest to predict young consumers’ intentions to visit the Green Hotel. The findings in this study indicate that tourists who perceive wellness destinations in Bali can provide various benefits for themselves, such as providing a sense of calm, and happiness, improving the quality of life, eliminating the burden of thoughts, and eliminating negative things in themselves, so that these perceived benefits can create optimistic attitudes towards wellness destinations. In other words, wellness tourism is a necessity for tourists, especially in restoring awareness and health in the physical, psychological, and spiritual forms. Thus, wellness tourism allows a person to revitalize or recharge energy within an individual.

7. Conclusion, implication, and limitation

7.1. Conclusion

The models proposed in this study included TT, SN, PBC, WM, PULL, TV, and VI. These variables were added to the original TPB model to expand tourism literature and provide a holistic model. This study aimed to investigate tourists’ visit intentions regarding Bali wellness tourism destinations. Surprisingly, this study discovered interesting results. First, the findings revealed that the two constructs could explain tourists’ attitudes toward wellness destinations, namely pull motivations and tourist value. By contrast, wellness motivation failed to explain tourists’ attitudes. Moreover, four constructs succeeded in influencing tourists’ visit intentions: wellness motivation, pull motivation, tourist value, and tourist attitude. Meanwhile, neither SN nor PBC were able to predict tourists’ visit intentions.

An interesting finding in this study is that attitude plays a mediating role between pull motivation and visit intention and the relationship between tourists’ value and visit intention. This indicates that the positive attitudes perceived by tourists regarding wellness destinations can be triggered by the motivational factors that attract them and the value they perceive. Thus, a sense of optimism or a positive attitude will encourage the intent to visit wellness tourist destinations. This finding also supports the results of the analysis, which shows that the three constructs that have the greatest contribution are pull motivation and tourist value to attitude and attitude to visit intention.

7.2. Theoretical implications

This study develops a unique conceptual model by integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict the level of domestic tourist’s visit intention toward wellness tourism in Bali. With a series of results that have been obtained, this study can provide several theoretical implications. Firstly, there have not been many studies discussing wellness tourism in post-pandemic Bali in the tourism literature, this study examines the potential to develop wider wellness tourism along with factors that can attract the attention of domestic tourists. Secondly, this study employs a multidimensional approach to provide an in-depth understanding of the topic of wellness tourism.

This study was also carried out to provide a deeper understanding of the determinants that may have an impact on tourists’ intention to visit a destination. By using the TPB model as the basic foundation of this study, a new understanding is obtained regarding the direct relationship between the constructs of wellness motivation, pull motivation, tourist value, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and attitude towards visit intention. Moreover, this study provides an understanding of the role that attitude has in mediating the relationship between wellness motivation, pull motivation, and tourists’ value on visit intention. Through the results obtained, it appears that attitude can effectively mediate the influence between pull motivation and tourists’ values on intentions in visiting wellness destinations in Bali. With this, the study can contribute to providing a better and broader understanding regarding the construct of visiting intentions in wellness tourism, specifically in Bali.

7.3. Practical implications

In the previous discussion, Bali is known to have the potential to develop wellness tourism with the increasing availability of health facilities and services such as yoga, wellness retreats, spas, pilates, etc. Wellness tourism has not received much attention from both the public and tourism actors. Through the results found in this study, there are several practical implications and recommendations for tourism actors, especially those in the wellness market. Firstly, the results show that pull motivation and values such as natural beauty, new experiences, and culture can create positive attitudes in tourists that can encourage tourists’ intentions to visit wellness destinations in Bali so destination managers must always maintain the authenticity of nature and culture in Bali. Destinations has the responsibility in prioritizing attractiveness and uniqueness, and being able to add value to the tourist experience to attract tourists. Secondly, to deepen and apply the right marketing strategy to broaden the awareness and interest of tourists to visit. One of the reasons for the minimal attention to the wellness segment is most likely due to the lack of promotion by tourism actors and companies in the sector directly or through online platforms. Marketing strategies can be carried out on various platforms, from websites, and Google Ads, to social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.), which are shown with interesting content, contain complete information, are responsive, and are easy for tourists to understand. Thirdly, destinations should carry out quality control regularly, which is very necessary to continue to renew and protect the surrounding environment to maintain the beauty of the destination. In addition, tourism companies and actors can offer tourists inclusive packages that can provide tourists with new and unique experiences. Finally, ease of access is known to be a crucial aspect from the point of view of tourists which is also a determinant of travel, so service providers need to improve the quality of facilities and infrastructure so that convenience will be provided for tourists when accessing these destinations. This convenience can be in the form of providing a map simply showing the way in a variety of languages that are easily understood by tourists from anywhere. In essence, the practical implications of this study can help tourism actors run their businesses and develop the potential of wellness tourism in Bali (Subawa et al., 2020).

7.4. Research limitations

This study has several limitations that should be addressed by future researchers. Firstly, the extended TPB model does not include other potential variables that can influence tourists’ visit intentions, where there are still other determinants that can influence attitudes and intentions to visit. It is recommended for further research to apply other determinants, for example, perceived quality, perceived price, and others, as well as apply moderating variables, for example, age and gender to the research construct, which will certainly result in new understanding and deeper explanation regarding this study’s framework model. Secondly, the results of this study cannot be generalized given that the sample used only focuses on domestic tourists as many as 323 tourists. Future research can utilize a larger sample size with different geographic objects through random sampling methods, for example on the intention to visit foreign tourists. Thirdly, this research was carried out using a quantitative approach by adopting questionnaire items in the previous literature. Thus, future research can apply a qualitative or exploratory approach to provide a different and more detailed perspective with a more relevant research framework in the wellness tourism literature. Lastly, this research only analyzes the potential for wellness tourism in Bali from a tourist perspective. Future research can carry out strategic analysis such as weaknesses, strengths, and opportunities, from the point of view of tourism actors, to provide a balanced understanding from both points of view.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nyoman Sri Subawa

Nyoman Sri Subawa is a Professor in the field of Management Science. He is also an active researcher in the following areas; management practices, MSMEs, Consumer Behavior, Digital Business, Entrepreneurship, and Bali’s Tourism Economy. Currently, he teaches at Undiknas University (Universitas Pendidikan Nasional), one of the best universities in Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.

Emi Angellina Mimaki

Emi Angellina Miimaki is a researcher who focuses his research in the field of Tourism and Consumer Behavior. Currently serving as a young researcher at Universitas Pendidikan Nasional (Undiknas University).

Caren Angellina Mimaki

Caren Angellina Mimaki is a researcher and lecturer at Universitas Pendidikan Nasional (Undiknas University). Research focus in the fields of Sustainable Tourism, Behavior, Management Accounting and other Social Science fields.

Elif Baykal

Elif Baykal currently, is ea researcher and lecturer at Istanbul Medipol University. The research conducted focuses on the fields of Leadership, Positive Psychology, Business Ethics, and Business Management.

Made Srinitha Millinia Utami

Made Srinitha Millinia Utami is a postgraduate master's student, Information Technology Study Program at Murdoch University. Take a specialty as a Data Analyst.