Exploring how natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics influence tourists' sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism

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However, by integrating sustainable production practice and tourism experience, green agricultural tourism has become the critical path to balance ecological protection and economic development. Based on the empirical analysis of green agricultural tourism areas in China, this study adopts structural equation model and finds that: (1) Natural characteristics and cultural characteristics significantly promote tourists' participation behavior, while the direct influence of agricultural characteristics is insignificant, but play a crucial role in participation through the mediating effect of perceived green value and perceived experience value. (2) The driving intensity of perceived experience value on behavior is significantly higher than that of perceived green value, highlighting the dominance of experience economy in green agritourism. (3) Environmental awareness prominently regulates the impact of three characteristics on perceived green value. Tourists with high environmental awareness are more inclined to interpret natural landscapes, cultural symbols and green agricultural products as the results of sustainable practices, thus enhancing green value recognition. (4) Participation convenience highly regulates the influence of the three characteristics on the perceived experience value. Higher transportation convenience and information availability effectively reduce the threshold of tourism experience and amplify tourists' value perception of natural landscape, cultural interaction and agricultural product experience. The mechanism of "tourism-ecology linkage" and the optimization strategy of digital platform are eventually proposed to enhance visitors' engagement. Social science/Economics Social science/Development studies Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Introduction Under the background of growing global urbanization and the transformation of traditional agricultural production methods, rural economies and ecosystems in developing countries are facing unprecedented pressure (Ellis et al., 2021). Research and practice results show that the traditional agricultural tourism development model often leads to agricultural ecosystem overload (Boháč and Drápela, 2022) and homogenization of agricultural cultural landscapes (Yang et al., 2022). Given all this, farmers, as the micro-subjects of agricultural production and rural landscape creation, adopt the behavioral decision of sustainable production practices and change the value composition of agricultural tourism products by reshaping the multiple paths of natural space, cultural symbols and agricultural product values, which has become the key to solving the obstacles of agricultural tourism development (Soleimani and Momeni, 2022). Further, green agricultural tourism is undoubtedly a key path for rural economic revitalization and ecological restoration. Green agricultural tourism, a new form of tourism that connects green agriculture with tourism, is gradually developed on the basis of concepts of green agriculture and agricultural tourism. Based on green and environmentally friendly agricultural production activities, it combines natural landscape, agricultural cultural resources and green agricultural products to attract tourists to participate in sustainable agricultural practices, enrich tourism experience, realize the educational value of tourism and stimulate tourists' ecological awareness, aiming at promoting ecological environment conservation and sustainable agricultural development (Ingrassia et al., 2023). What distinguishes green agritourism from traditional agritourism is that it promotes sustainable production practices with positive externalities (Styring et al., 2022), improves the environmental quality of tourist destinations (Roy et al., 2022), and enriches tourists' tourism experience to achieve the purpose of ecological protection and economic development. Its development will also encourage more farmers to adopt sustainable production practices and attain deep integration of agriculture and tourism (Ingrassia et al., 2023). Thus, clarifying the relationship between sustainable production practice and green agricultural tourism is not only of great academic significance, but also provides practical reference for the in-depth integration of agriculture and tourism in China and other developing countries around the world. The relevant existing research shows obvious disciplinary divisions. Agricultural economics considers technology adoption mechanisms for farmers' sustainable production practices (Glover et al., 2019), policies and market incentives (Setsoafia et al., 2022; Mockshell et al., 2023) and performance evaluation (Ma et al., 2024)). While the tourism academic community focuses primarily on market demand characteristics of agricultural tourism, the factors affecting the behavior (Baby and Kim, 2024), its impact on rural economy (Bieloborodova, 2022) and ecology (Shen et al., 2020), and the participation mechanism of local communities and farmers(Kastenholz et al., 2018; Soulard et al., 2021). The development of sustainable agriculture found that farmers' sustainable production practices such as ecological fertilization, biological insecticide and circular farming have the functions of constructing characteristic agricultural landscape, enhancing environmental aesthetic value and activating local cultural memory, so as to further reconstruct the core competitiveness of agricultural tourism products through(Kastenholz et al., 2018). Some studies have explored the relationship between organic farms and tourism, which mostly emphasis on the impact of a single dimension, such as natural landscape attractiveness (García-Martín et al., 2016) or cultural authenticity (Andéhn and L 'Espoir Decosta, 2021) on tourist behavior. This study attempt to incorporates the three characteristics of sustainable production practices into a unified analytical framework, and reveal their compound effects on tourist behavior through differentiated pathways. This responds to the critique of segmented cultural analysis by Everingham et al. (2021) and provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the transformation of multiple values of agricultural systems into tourism capital. Theoretical basis and research hypotheses Theoretical basis: Perceived value theory Perceived value theory asserts that consumers form value judgments through the trade-off between benefit acquisition and cost payment (Zeithaml, 1988), thus further making consumption decisions. Generally speaking, perceived value consists of multiple dimensions such as functional value, emotional value, social value, economic value, etc.(Rasoolimanesh et al., 2023). In different research backgrounds, it is further subdivided into different dimensions to measure individuals' overall feelings about products or services. However, the traditional division of perceived value is not enough to explain tourists' deep concern about the sustainability of the whole production-consumption link in the post-epidemic era. So the agritourism value hierarchy model is introduced into this study and deconstructed perceived value into perceived green value(PGV) and perceived experience value(PEV). The former involves environmental responsibility recognition and social well-being recognition. Specifically, in the process of tourism consumption, tourists pay attention to the cognition and recognition of sustainable production methods for physical health, social and environmental protection, including social value and environmental value (Testa et al., 2021), and the latter includes two aspects: cognitive activation and emotional immersion. The emotional value chain model(Regalado-Pezúa et al., 2023) is used to quantify the experience depth through multi-modal indicators of five-sense interaction intensity such as the vision of landscape aesthetics and the touch of farming experience. This reconstruction breaks through traditional dimensional divisions by including the situational variable visibility of production system (VPS).To demonstrate how farmers' sustainable practices enhance tourists' willingness to pay for hidden ecological benefits by augmenting embodiment of value perception(de Araújo et al., 2022). How can tourists perceived green value and experience value be linked to farmers' sustainable production practices? Attribution theory(Heider, 1958) offers a key explanatory framework for this study, that is, tourists' evaluation of perceived green value and perceived experience value is essentially a process of attributing observed results such as clear water quality and farming skills to farmers' behavioral characteristics. Research hypotheses: direct effect, mediating effect and moderating effect Direct effect: The basic influence of three characteristics on participation behavior The meaningful end of sustainable production practices is the direct impact on environmental sustainability and ecological protection (Styring et al., 2022), which is represented by natural characteristics(NC). At the social level, promoting the inheritance of farming culture and social development (Song et al., 2022), is manifested as cultural characteristics(CC). The economic impact on agricultural economic benefits and livelihood improvement (Hessel et al., 2022) is reflected as agricultural characteristics(AC). These three characteristics are the multi-dimensional embodiment of the overall impact of green agricultural tourism. Choosing them as independent variables can measure the comprehensive influence of farmers' sustainable production practices in the three dimensions of environment, society and economy, and more accurately evaluate the role of sustainable production practices in promoting participation in green agricultural tourism. Sustainable agricultural production practices can reshape the natural character of farmland. For example, through eco-friendly management methods, soil organic matter content can be increased, earthworms and microbial activities can be promoted, soil structure and the quality of agricultural products can be improved(Rockström et al., 2021); Diversified farmland and reduced pesticide use provide habitat for pollinators, birds, and small mammals, while vibrant farmland scenes of butterflies and frogs replace the silence of traditional monoculture fields (Pywell et al,. 2015). These natural features consisted of healthy soils, landscape aesthetic substrates and biodiversity networks constitute the ecological base of green agricultural tourism and become the core resources to attract tourists (Roy et al., 2022; Badu, 2023). The enhancement of landscape aesthetic value elicits self-transcendent emotions, including love, compassion and awe, enabling tourists to obtain sensory enjoyment and emotional resonance (Zhao et al., 2024), which helps draw tourists closer to nature. Additionally, tourists' visual aesthetic feeling through social media sharing of beautiful scenery triggers the tourism motivation of others (Hausmann et al., 2022). Therefore, the restoration and strengthening of natural features by sustainable production practice can further boost green agricultural tourism. Sustainable production practice can strengthen the cultural characteristics of agriculture. Integrating sustainable production practices with farming culture through organic farming and ecological improvement of traditional farming tools can change the form of material cultural form of agriculture and reshape its intangible cultural core, including the continuation of related community cooperation norms and the intergenerational transmission of ecological values (Shen et al., 2020; Hassan et al., 2022).This integration offers tourists a diverse experience of understanding the innovative development of traditional farming culture, with the potential to attract tourists pursuing leisure and educational needs (Garzón et al., 2022). Digital narratives like sustainable practice scenes in short videos transform abstract sustainability into concrete and easy-to-understand cultural symbols (Chen et al., 2023). The authenticity of cultural landscapes, acquisition of farming knowledge and local narratives jointly evoke tourists' nostalgia and make them intend to pay for green tourism products (Shen et al., 2020; Garzón et al., 2022); Furthermore, the cultural logo formed by agricultural cultural heritage certification has emerged as a symbolic resource for tourists to build sustainable lifestyle identity (Everingham et al., 2021) and possesses considerable explanatory power for tourists' participation. This paper holds that the cultural characteristics influenced by sustainable production practice affect tourists' participation behavior through multiple paths such as educational function, emotional connection and symbolic value. Sustainable production practices including educing chemical input, biological control of pests and diseases and improving the physical properties of agricultural products help agritourism destinations produce distinctive agricultural characteristics. Organic farming and diversified cultivation can increase the vitamin content and antioxidant levels of crops, making produce different from conventional products in appearance, taste and nutritional safety (El Bilali et al., 2021), which conveys functional value of health and safety to tourists (Barbieri et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2022), prompting them to form participatory decision-making. However, a few scholars argue that non-quality factors like price and convenience may be more influential on ordinary tourists' participation behavior (Holland et al., 2022), and even agricultural characteristics need to rely on additional conditions such as landscape aesthetics (e.g., pastoral scenery) to exert influence (Elshaer et al., 2023). In green agricultural tourism, can agricultural characteristics stimulate tourists' tourism participation behavior? This research asserts that the agricultural characteristics influenced by sustainable production methods can directly enhance sensory pleasure through the quality of agricultural products. This quality visibility and cultural touchability might lower the cognitive cost of tourists, and activate the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism because of intuitive sensory satisfaction or cultural resonance. Based on the above analysis, the following hypotheses are proposed. H1: Natural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices has a significant positive impact on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism. H2: Cultural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices significantly positively influences tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism. H3: Agricultural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices has a strong positive impact on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism. Mediating effect: Dual-path transmission of perceived green value and perceived experience value Perceived green value includes social value and environmental value, reflecting visitors' acknowledgment of health advantages and environmental conservation. Perceived experience value encompasses functional value and emotional value, derived from tourists' firsthand experience in tourism. Current studies posit that perceived value plays a key role in tourists' tourism decision-making: the appearance of ecological restoration of natural landscapes prompts tourists' perception of value through direct senses. When tourists are immersed in the natural environment shaped by sustainable agriculture, ecological services such as air purification and water source protection and aesthetic quality bring pleasure through multi-sensory stimuli such as smell (fragrance of vegetation), hearing (insects and birds) and sight (flowers, grass and trees) (Sthapit et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2024; Ulrich, 1983), so that tourists can generate understanding and appreciation of health and environmental values (Rockström et al., 2021). Attention recovery theory (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989) states that natural landscape can relieve psychological pressure, enhance tourists' perception of the healing value of nature, and foster intimacy and identity with the environment. Attachment theory holds that tourists’ interaction with the natural environment (such as planting seeds by hand) will deepen their emotional attachment to the environment, thereby transforming the natural features maintained by the farmer into an integral part of the personal emotional experience (Ryan and Frederick, 1997; Kyle et al., 2004). These studies show that natural characteristics construct tourists' perceptions of green value and experience value through the dual paths of health and emotion. This research claims that green agritourism producers' sustainable production practices significantly shape high-quality natural features, and ultimately influence tourists' behavioral choices. Cultural characteristics shape tourists' green value identity via symbolic meaning and social norms, and affect their experiential value through interactive experience and knowledge acquisition. Traditional ecological knowledge conveys the ethics of symbiosis between man and nature, while tourists cultivate environmental responsibility through engagement in cultural activities(Berkes et al., 2000), thereby reinforcing their acknowledgment and endorsement of sustainable production practices (Hassan et al., 2022). Su et al. (2020) found that rural intangible cultural heritage displays can arouse tourists' attention to cultural sustainability, strengthening their recognition of environmental responsibility, perception and acceptance of green value by engaging in cultural activities such as biofertilizer production and grass treatment and experiencing its attached symbolic meaning (Garcia-Martín et al., 2016). Educational scenarios(such as ecological farmland tours and organic planting demonstrations) provided by tourist destinations can transform abstract culture into understandable and practical information, enhance the efficiency of visitors' acquisition of agricultural knowledge (Hassan et al., 2024) and meet their emotional needs for pleasure, appreciation and relaxation, thus strengthening the functional and emotional experience value of green agricultural tourism. Based on the points discussed above, this study holds that the reshaping of cultural characteristics by sustainable production practice might elevate tourists' perception of green value and experience value, form emotional resonance and deepen their commitment to participating behavior. Agricultural characteristics play a key role in enriching tourists' sensory experience and emotional satisfaction with high-quality characteristics of agricultural products, thereby significantly enhancing their experience value (Lee and Peng, 2021). Dixit and Prayag (2022) emphasize that this experience should include tasting gourmet food and understanding the origin and production process of food, thus enabling visitors to gain richer cognitive and emotional value in their consumption. Feagan and Morris (2009) found that the traceability of agricultural products directly leads tourists to the associated perception that food safety equates to environmental friendliness. It can be inferred that the characteristics of high-quality green agricultural products brought by sustainable production practices enable tourists to better understand their production origins and environmental significance while enjoying fresh and nutritious offerings. This nutritious offerings experience not only fulfills tourists' functional requirements for health and nutrition, but also brings them pleasure and satisfaction at the cognitive and emotional levels, thus significantly enhancing their perceived green value and experience value. When tourists acknowledge the health benefits and environmental contributions of green agricultural tourism, their perceived green value influences and enhances their incentive to participate. Tourists with high perceived green value believe that their consumption contributes to environmental protection, and they are willing to purchase organic products(Chen et al., 2023)). Meanwhile, the positive interaction experience between tourists and the natural environment and farming cultural activities will make them feel happy because of the knowledge acquired, which positively affects their sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism(Zelenski and Desrochers, 2021). Nonetheless, some studies assert that perceived green value will be covered by alternative mechanisms. For example, Pandža Bajs (2015) pointed out that if tourists attach more importance to the experience of fun such as picking, perceived experience value may have a stronger impact on behavior than perceived green value. For that, under the background of sustainable production practice, natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics can significantly affect tourists' perceived green value and perceived experience value, and ultimately stimulate tourists' sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following hypotheses: H4: Natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics indirectly and positively influence participation behavior by enhancing tourists' perceived green value. Among them, natural characteristics (H4a), cultural characteristics (H4b) and agricultural characteristics (H4c) significantly affect tourists' perceived green value; Perceived green value has a significant positive effect on tourists' participation behavior in green agritourism (H4d). H5: Natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics indirectly and positively affect participation behavior by augmenting tourists' perceived experience value. Among them, natural characteristics (H5a), cultural characteristics (H5b) and agricultural characteristics (H5c) significantly influence tourists' perceived experience value; The perceived experience value has a significant positive effect on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism (H5d). Moderating effect: Boundary conditions of environmental awareness and participation convenience To deeply understand the influence of individual intrinsic factors and external conditions on tourists' perceived value and participation behavior, this research introduces environmental awareness and participation convenience as moderating variables. Environmental awareness(EA) refers to an individual's degree of concern and sense of responsibility for environmental protection, which is used to explore whether it and the three characteristics together affect tourists' perceived green value. Its regulating effect on the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived green value is essentially the interaction process between tourists' intrinsic values and external scene signals. Participation convenience (PC) denotes the extent of accessibility to information and transportation for tourists in the process of participating in green agricultural tourism, a critical factor influencing consumer experience and satisfaction. Its moderating effect on the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived experience value is essentially a process of releasing experience potential by lowering the threshold of participation. Environmental psychology believes that individuals' environmental awareness will affect their processing and response to environmental information. Tourists with higher environmental awareness place deeper environmental values and beliefs on the ecological genus in natural features and are more inclined to engage in sustainable behaviors(Schröder and Wolf 2017; Bajrami et al., 2023). Of course, in green agricultural tourism, when confronted with beautiful natural landscapes and biodiversity, such tourists are more likely to attribute these characteristics to the results of sustainable production practices protecting the environment and associate these practices with environmental preservation and health benefits, which in turn enhance their identification with green value (Sharma, 2021; Hadi and Johan, 2023). Besides, increased convenience of participation improves the accessibility and experience quality of natural characteristics (Chakraborty et al., 2023; Feng et al., 2021). For example, a clearly marked barrier-free trail enables travelers to easily reach the terraced landscape. Only then can the mist-shrouded valley evokes the emotional resonance of the unity of nature and man. If the path is rugged and unguided, tourists expend their energy searching for the route, which weakens the experience value of natural features (Berry et al., 2002). The influence of cultural characteristics on the perceived green value is also dominated by the cognitive filtering of environmental awareness. According to self-concept extension theory (Schultz, 2001), environmentally conscious tourists are likely to associate cultural symbols with ecological wisdom. The impact of cultural characteristics on the experience value depends more on the decoding support of cultural symbols by convenience. Higher participation convenience helps eliminate the interference of "search anxiety" on the experience and increase the richness and depth of tourists' cultural experience. The research on rural China shows that after the introduction of QR code scanning audio guide, the complex process is decomposed into understandable steps, significantly improving tourists' perception of the value of traditional textile skills( Tzima et al., 2020) ). The green value perception of agricultural characteristics depends more on the ability to interpret environmental awareness regarding technical ecological attributes. Among the tourists with high environmental awareness, the influence of agricultural characteristics on green consumption intention is significantly higher than that of those with low environmental awareness (Zhao et al., 2022). This suggests that environmental awareness not only amplifies the green value perception of agricultural characteristics, but also converts it into actual drivers of action. Participation convenience can lower the threshold of experience by finding high-quality green agricultural products through real-time information and traffic accessibility. Taking Nishiyama tourism in Japan as an example, Ohe (2016) discovered that when the transportation time is shortened by 30%, the depth of tourists' experience of local agricultural products (such as tasting frequency) increases by 22%, indicating that participation convenience can reduce the experience cost and increase the value conversion efficiency of agricultural characteristics. Thus the subsequent hypotheses are proposed. H6: Visitors' environmental awareness positively mediates the relationship between natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, agricultural characteristics, and perceived green value. Environmental awareness plays a moderating role in the effects of natural characteristics (H6a), cultural characteristics (H6b), and agricultural characteristics (H6c) on perceived green value. H7: Visitors' participation convenience positively influences the relationship between natural, cultural, and agricultural characteristics and perceived experience value. Participation convenience moderates the impact of natural characteristics (H7a), cultural characteristics (H7b), and agricultural characteristics (H7c) on perceived experience value. Based on the above analysis, this paper takes tourists' green agricultural tourism participation behavior as the dependent variable, natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics affected by farmers' sustainable production practices as independent variables. Additionally, perceived green value and perceived experience value are identified as mediating variables. Environmental awareness and participation convenience are used as moderating variables, and personal traits are functioned as control variables. Finally, the specific theoretical framework model established is shown in Fig. 1 . Research methods To evaluate how farmers' sustainable production practices can influence tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism by enhancing their perceived value, hence fostering sustainable tourism behavior. The questionnaire survey method is adopted in this study, which is based on previous studies and combined with the specific background of green agricultural tourism. Data are collected from the survey of places with sustainable production practices. On the basis of descriptive statistical analysis, structural equation model is used to test the research hypothesis. Questionnaire design The questionnaire comprises two parts: a scale to measure causality and an overview of the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The first part deals with the causal judgment, aiming to investigate the causal relationship between tourists' cognition of farmers' sustainable production practices and their perception of the value of green agricultural tourism, and their participation in green agricultural tourism. It includes six dimensions, namely, three characteristics affected by sustainable production practice, sustainable participation behavior, perceived experience value, perceived green value, environmental awareness and participation convenience. The 5 options for sustainable engagement behaviors refer to the research of Dixit and Prayag (2022), and are appropriately adapted to conform to the understanding habits of Chinese people, adding an item of purchasing agricultural products. Natural characteristics pertain to the literature on environmental improvement studies such as water conservation and soil health(Roy et al., 2022). Cultural characteristics refer to the research of Song et al. (2022). Perceived green value and experience value refer to the study of Chen et al. (2023) and Giddy and Webb (2018) on perceived value. These studies cover multiple dimensions of perceived value and they are adapted appropriately for the context of this study. The green value and experience value are crucial to understanding how tourists assess green agricultural tourism experience. The measurement of environmental awareness is based on the NEP-R measurement scale of Dunlap et al. (2000). It is widely utilized to evaluate individuals' view of natural environment relationships, and its scientific validity and accuracy are acknowledged in the domain of environmental psychology. Options are using the Likert five-level scale, the five classifications ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree, to ensure its sensitivity and the meticulousness of the response. The second part is the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents, including age, gender, education level, occupation, economic income and family composition, aimed at judging whether individuals with different characteristics in decision-making is different and if there are recognizable behavior patterns. Of course, these demographic indicators have been rigorously verified to effectively reflect the influence of various demographic variables on tourism participation, which helps better understand the characteristics of target groups. This paper places demographic questions at the end of the survey to minimize common method biases. Data collection Meitan County, Guizhou is one of the important tea producing areas in China. It possesses a geographical environment characterized by "high altitude, low latitude and cloudy fog", which provides a natural experimental field for studying the sustainability of tea production. The county has made remarkable achievements in promoting sustainable production methods, with most tea products having passed the EU pesticide residue standard certification, and actively promoted the integration and development of tea tourism, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists by providing activities such as tea garden sightseeing, experiencing tea picking and tea making. Compared with other regions, this region not only has superior natural conditions, but also has leading conditions and practices in the combination of sustainable production and green agricultural tourism. It is an ideal region to study the interaction between the two with representativeness of sample. In self-report questionnaires, factors such as questionnaire design, subjective factors of respondents and social expectations may result in common methodological bias (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). In the process of data collection, anonymity and confidentiality are emphasized in the questionnaire description to guarantee the authenticity of the answers. Various process control measures, including reverse scoring items and random distribution of items with different latent variables are adopted in designing the questionnaire to reduce the social expectation bias of respondents and minimize the possible common method bias (CMB) (Podsakoff et al., 2003). In the peak period of spring tea collection from March to May 2023, researchers have been to Meitan County many times to conduct field research and interview tourists who participating in tea picking experience. A total of 587 questionnaires were gathered. Based on the completeness of answers and its logical consistency, 71 questionnaires are screened out as invalid questionnaires, the effective sample size is 516, and the effective rate is 87.9%. The minimum sample size should be 150 when the research model is less than 8 constructs with no unidentifiable constructs moderate commonalities. Furthermore, at a power of α = 0.05 and α = 80%, a moderate effect size requires at least 138 samples (Fritz and Mackinnon, 2007), therefore, this study has a sufficient sample size. After descriptive statistical analysis, covariance based structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data. Results analysis Descriptive statistics The gender distribution in the sample is almost 1: 1, with males close to 51% and females comprising around 49%, indicating a relatively balanced distribution. In terms of age distribution, respondents aged 30–39 (32.6%) and 40–49 (28.3%) accounts for the majority of the sample; 10.5% are under 30 years old; 28.7% are over 50 years old. Regarding educational background, 66.5% of the respondents have a university degree or above. The occupational status shows that the vast majority of respondents (79.3%) are on-the-job employees, and their main income level is above 48,000 yuan. Based on these personal characteristics, tourists who visit rural areas for leisure and vacation are mainly employed individuals with higher education and middle or above income. This phenomenon is consistent with the living habit of knowledge workers in the current society that tend to take their families to nearby villages to participate in agricultural activities (such as fruit picking) on weekends for pleasure (Liu, 2024). Measurement model Multivariate normality is a necessary condition for multiple regression analysis and structural equation model. Absolute values of skewness statistic < 3 and absolute values of kurtosis statistic < 7 are often used as diagnostic criteria for multivariate normality (Kline, 2023). In this study, the maximum absolute value of skewness statistics and kurtosis statistics of each item is 1.041, and the maximum absolute value of kurtosis statistics is 0.997, which meet the assumption of normal distribution. Reliability analysis (RA) uses Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient to check the consistency of questionnaire research variables on each measurement item. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of each variable in this study is greater than 0.7, which is considered to have good internal consistency (Nunnally, 1978). CITC exceeds 0.5, indicating that the measurement items meet the research requirements. Furthermore, most of the "Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted" values are lower than the overall Cronbach's Alpha value of the corresponding variable, suggesting that most items have a positive effect on improving reliability. SPSS23.0 is used for exploratory factor analysis, and KMO and Bartlett's spherical test are performed on the scale. The result is KMO = 0.943, exceeding 0.7, and the Bartlett's spherical test value is significant (Sig. < 0.001), demonstrating that the questionnaire data fulfills the prerequisite requirements of factor analysis. To detect common method bias, Harman's one-factor test is used to test common method bias. Exploratory factor analysis of all measured items without rotation shows that a total of 8 factor eigenvalues are greater than 1, and the eigenvalue of the first factor is 12.137, accounting for 36.778% of the variance, which is below the cut-off of 40% (Podsakoff et al., 2003), indicating that the common method bias problem is within the acceptable range. The principal component analysis method is employed for factor extraction, and the common factor is extracted with the characteristic root exceeds 1. When the factor is rotated, the maximum variance orthogonal rotation is used for factor analysis. A total of 8 factors are identified: natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, agricultural characteristics, perceived green value, perceived experience value, environmental awareness, participation convenience and participation behavior, and the total explanatory ability reached 72.198% more than 50%, indicating that the selected 8 factors are well representative. The factor load of each measurement item is greater than 0.5, while the cross-loading remains below 0.4. Each item falls into the corresponding factor, which has good structural validity. The validation factor analysis includes a total of 33 measurement topics. Utilizing Amos23.0 to perform confirmatory factor analysis reveals that CMIN/DF is 1.191, which is less than the standard below 3, GFI = 0.940, AGFI = 0.928, NFI = 0.947, TLI = 0.990, IFI = 0.991, CFI = 0.991, all of which reach the standard above 0.9, RMR = 0.041 and RMSEA = 0.019 are both below 0.08, indicating that each fitting index meets the general research standard. Consequently, it can be considered that this model has a good matching degree (Hu and Bentler, 1999). The results of confirmatory factor analysis shows that the standardized factor load of each measurement index of variables exceeds 0.6. The composition reliability (CR) greater than 0.7 is ideal, where NC = 0.862, CC = 0.879, AC = 0.887, PGV = 0.856, PEV = 0.871, EA = 0.850, PC = 0.841, PB = 0.919, all items exceeds 0.7. The average variation extraction (AVE) exceeds 0.5 in the acceptable range, NC = 0.610, CC = 0.646, AC = 0.664, PGV = 0.599, PEV = 0.628, EA = 0.587, PC = 0.571, PB = 0.694, all items surpass 0.5, signifying that each variable has good convergent validity, as shown in Table 1 . Table 1 Validation factor analysis results Variable Item Factor loading CR AVE NC NC1 0.748 0.862 0.610 NC2 0.788 NC3 0.785 NC4 0.803 CC CC1 0.869 0.879 0.646 CC2 0.844 CC3 0.776 CC4 0.718 AC AC1 0.876 0.887 0.663 AC2 0.827 AC3 0.794 AC4 0.755 PGV PGV1 0.772 0.856 0.599 PGV2 0.784 PGV3 0.789 PGV4 0.749 PEV PEV1 0.850 0.870 0.627 PEV2 0.768 PEV3 0.769 PEV4 0.778 EA EA1 0.747 0.850 0.587 EA2 0.815 EA3 0.771 EA4 0.729 PC PC1 0.808 0.841 0.570 PC2 0.745 PC3 0.685 PC4 0.777 PB PB1 0.807 0.919 0.694 PB2 0.789 PB3 0.767 PB4 0.914 PB5 0.879 In this study, the rigorous AVE method is used to evaluate the discrimination validity. The AVE square root of each factor must be greater than the correlation coefficient of each pair of variables, indicating that the factors have discrimination validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The AVE open root sign of each factor is larger than the standardized correlation coefficient outside the diagonal line, so this study maintain discriminatory validity, while the oblique lower triangle represents the correlation coefficient, as shown in Table 2 . Table 2 Validity of discrimination NC CC AC PGV PEV EA PC PB NC 0.781 CC .467 0.804 AC .512 .474 0.815 PGV .492 .480 .532 0.774 PEV .521 .478 .562 .450 0.792 EA .227 .245 .203 .304 .186 0.766 PC .423 .431 .389 .338 .424 .221 0.756 PB .525 .534 .516 .537 .611 .206 .459 0.833 Structural model To test the hypotheses in this study, the structural model is evaluated using maximum likelihood estimation. The proposed model has good fitting indicators and can explain the hypothesis relationship between variables: CMIN/DF = 1.396 (< 3), all indicators of GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI, IFI, CFI are above the ideal 0.9 threshold (GFI = 0.952, AGFI = 0.940, NFI = 0.960, TLI = 0.990, IFI = 0.991, CFI = 0.991), and RMR, RMSEA are below the ideal 0.080 cutoff (RMR = 0.042, RMSEA = 0.023) (Hu and Bentler, 1999). Figure 2 shows the test results of 11 hypotheses. Firstly, the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism is significantly directly and positively influenced by natural characteristics (β = 0.111, p < 0.05) and cultural characteristics (β = 0.183, p 0.05), and H3 is not valid. Secondly, natural characteristics (β = 0.25, p < 0.05), cultural characteristics (β = 0.219, p < 0.05), and agricultural characteristics (β = 0.358, p < 0.05) have significant positive effects on perceived green value, therefore, H4a, H4b and H4c are true. Natural characteristics(β = 0.286, p < 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.19, p < 0.05), and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.368, p < 0.05) exert considerable positive influences on the perceived experience value, and H5a, H5b and H5c are valid. On the whole, the influence degree of these three on perceived green value and perceived experience value is ranked as follows: agricultural characteristics > natural characteristics > cultural characteristics, indicating that they play a decisive role in shaping tourists' perception of green value and experience value. Finally, perceived green value(β = 0.22, p < 0.05) and perceived experience value(β = 0.391, p < 0.05) have significant positive effects on tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism, hence validating H4d and H5d. The impact of perceived experience value on participation behavior (β = 0.391) is significantly greater than that of perceived green value (β = 0.22), indicating that improving tourists' experience value perception is a more critical driving factor in encouraging tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism.To sum up, the test results of 11 hypotheses reveal the role of natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics in shaping tourists' perceived green value and perceived experience value of green agritourism, and how these perceived factors affect tourists' participation behavior, the path diagram among variables is shown in Fig. 2 : In this study, Bootstrapping is used to verify the mediation effect. If the bootstrap confidence interval does not contain 0, the corresponding indirect, direct or total effect is significant (Hayes, 2017). The Bootstrap method is run 5000 times in Amos23.0 to yield the level values of bias-corrected versus percentile at 95% confidence. The estimated total effects of natural, cultural, and agricultural characteristics are 0.278, 0.306 and 0.247, respectively. They have significant indirect effects on sustainable participation through perceived green value and perceived experience value, respectively. Both effects can be proved by the fact that both bias-corrected and percentile do not contain 0 in 95% confidence intervals. Meanwhile, natural characteristics and cultural characteristics have significant direct effects on perceptual behavior, and the direct effect of agricultural features on perceptual behavior is 0.025. Its bias-corrected and percentile contain 0 in 95% confidence interval, indicating that the direct effect is not apparent. Therefore, all the three characteristics have significant total and indirect effects on participation behavior, but only natural characteristics and cultural characteristics have direct effects, while the direct effects of agricultural characteristics are insignificant. This means that although agricultural characteristics affect participation behavior, it occurs more indirectly through its influence on perceived green value and perceived experience value, rather than directly affecting participation behavior. Despite the advantages of structural equation model (SEM) in handling latent variable relationships, the regression-based method is widely recognized and applied in testing the moderating effects(Hayes, 2017). It can intuitively reveal the changes in the influence of independent variables, regulating variables and interaction terms on dependent variables when they are gradually introduced, and the results are easy to explain and present. This approach is also widely employed in research practice in the field of economic management (Hayes and Rockwood, 2020). Therefore, it is reasonable and effective to choose hierarchical regression analysis method to test the moderating effect in this study. Table 3 model 3 demonstrates that the interaction terms of environmental awareness with natural characteristics(β = 0.156, p < 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.105, p < 0.05) and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.129, p < 0.05) all have positive effects on perceived green value, suggesting that the interaction effects are notable. It shows that environmental awareness plays a positive regulating role between the three characteristics and perceived green value. Therefore, H6a, H6b and H6c are supported. Table 3 Environmental awareness regulation test PGV M1 M2 M3 β β β NC 0.492* 0.446* 0.459* EA 0.203* 0.181* NC * EA 0.156* R2 0.243 0.281 0.305 R2 Change 0.243 0.039 0.024 F 164.561* 100.454* 74.971* CC 0.480* 0.432* 0.441* EA 0.198* 0.192* CC * EA 0.105 R2 0.231 0.268 0.278 R2 Change 0.231 0.037 0.011 F 153.982* 93.692* 65.853* AC 0.532* 0.491* 0.492* EA 0.205* 0.189* AC * EA 0.129 R2 0.284 0.324 0.34 R2 Change 0.284 0.04 0.016 F 203.378* 122.729* 87.910* Table 4 model 3 presents the interactive items of participation convenience with natural characteristics(β = 0.118, p < 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.102, p < 0.05) and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.183, p < 0.05) all exhibit positive and significant effects on perceived green value, indicating that participation convenience positively moderates the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived experience value. Therefore, H7a, H7b and H7c are established. Table 4 Participate convenience adjustment test PEV M1 M2 M3 β β β NC 0.521* 0.417* 0.423* PC 0.247* 0.267* NC * PC 0.118* R2 0.272 0.322 0.335 R2 Change 0.272 0.05 0.013 F 191.801* 121.773* 86.116* CC 0.478* 0.363* 0.362* PC 0.267* 0.296* CC * PC 0.102* R2 0.229 0.287 0.296 R2 Change 0.229 0.058 0.01 F 152.346* 103.171* 71.925* AC 0.562* 0.468* 0.483* PC 0.242* 0.288* AC * PC 0.183* R2 0.315 0.365 0.396 R2 Change 0.229 0.058 0.01 F 236.831* 147.435* 111.699* Discussion The research results show that the natural and cultural characteristics influenced by farmers' sustainable production practices directly affect tourists' participation behavior. The three characteristics indirectly act on participation behavior through perceived green value and perceived experience value. Environmental awareness significantly moderates the relationship the three characteristics and perceived green value, while participation convenience also has a marked regulating role between the three characteristics and perceived experience value. The direct effect of three characteristics on the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism Our finding suggests that farmers' sustainable production practices significantly and positively affect tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism by improving natural and cultural characteristics, supporting H1 and H2. The influence of agricultural characteristics on tourists' participation behavior is less obvious than expected, partially supporting H3. In terms of natural characteristics, the improvement of the environment by sustainable production practices makes the countryside have the characteristics of beautiful natural scenery and biodiversity. It addresses the demands of people living in the fast-paced era to get close to nature, enhances their sense of identity with the improved environment, and further strengthens their willingness to participate in green agricultural tourism. The result supports the bioaffinity hypothesis of a natural affinity between humans and the natural environment (Shen et al., 2022; Badu, 2023). Cultural characteristics have a significant impact on tourists' participation behavior (β = 0.183, p < 0.05), which supports the opinions of Shen et al. (2020) and Everingham et al. (2021). That is, sustainable production practices are often integrated with traditional farming culture and ecological values, and the attractions of rural tourism include factors like village cultural heritage(Shen et al., 2020). It means that green agricultural tourism can become a platform for the inheritance of sustainable production culture, presenting tourists with the original farming life and humanistic customs. Contrary to our expectations, the effect of agricultural characteristics on tourists' participation behavior is not obvious (β = 0.025, p > 0.05), which is partly consistent with the view of Sharpley and Vass (2006). They believe that although the functional value (such as health and safety) of high-quality agricultural products (such as organic vegetables and ecological fruits) can draw some tourists, its impact may be diluted by non-quality factors such as price and convenience. Holland et al. (2022) further pointed out that the participation of ordinary tourists in decision-making is more driven by additional conditions such as landscape aesthetics and cultural experience, rather than the quality of a single agricultural product, which suggests that the independent attractiveness of agricultural features is limited in green agritourism. Tourists prefer green and safe agricultural products (Xu et al., 2022), but this affects their consumption satisfaction at the destination more than the primary motivation for their journey. This indicates that tourists have a recognition of quality agricultural products after visiting, and the role of agricultural characteristics in participation in the decision-making stage is limited. The mediating role of perceived green value and perceived experience value Empirical studies also show that natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics mediate tourists' green agritourism participation behavior through perceived green value and perceived experience value. Agricultural characteristics have the most significant influence on perceived green value and perceived experience value, followed by natural characteristics and cultural characteristics, and the driving effect of perceived experience value on participatory behavior is stronger than that of perceived green value. These findings have supported the opinions of previous studies. Agricultural characteristics play a decisive role in shaping the green value of tourists. Compared with traditional agricultural methods, sustainable production practices bring the image of high-quality agricultural products and environmental friendliness(Feagan and Morris, 2009). When tourists obtain traceable organic agricultural products or personally experience the organic planting process, they will establish a direct correlation between safe, healthy and high-quality agricultural products without chemical residues and environmental protection at the cognitive level (Rockström et al., 2021), stimulating them to recognize the perceived green value of green agricultural tourism (Dixit and Prayag, 2022). Sustainable production practice is not only a technical application, but also a trigger to motivate tourists' emotional participation, which can promote the development of green agricultural tourism behavior. This supports the research of Giddy and Webb(2018) and Zelenski and Desrochers (2021) that natural beauty can improve tourist experience, and expands the research of Ren et al. (2019) on the sensory impact of natural beauty on tourists' experience. Cultural characteristics take traditional ecological knowledge and local cultural beliefs as carriers, aiming to transform abstract environmental responsibility into concrete cultural symbols, convey the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature to tourists, so that they can strengthen their identification of green values at the psychological and attitudinal levels(Berkes et al., 2000; Hassan et al., 2022). Many Chinese tourists have a deep cultural identity and emotional attachment to rural culture and traditional farming, which forms a dialogue with Hassan et al. (2022) on the impact of cultural experience and knowledge education on tourism experience. Both perceived green value and perceived experience value can significantly positively affect tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism, but the influence of perceived experience value (β = 0.391) on behavior is significantly higher than that of perceived green value (β = 0.22). It shows that tourists' sensory and emotional needs for beauty, fun, physical and mental pleasure are still important. For most ordinary tourists, although they agree with the green value of environmental protection, being able to eat delicious, beautiful and fun is the core driving force that ultimately promotes their tourism behavior. Therefore, if there is a lack of pleasant activity design or the inability to meet the needs of diversified leisure education, even if tourists agree with the importance of green value, they may not choose to actually participate. This finding provides new evidence for the theory of experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 2011) and extends upon Chen et al. (2023) regarding an empirical demonstration of tourist behavior in organic agricultural tourism. Perceived green value and experienced value serve as a bridge between farmers' sustainable production practices and tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism. Under the background of green development strategy, Chinese tourists' perception of green value in green agricultural tourism has gradually increased, making their tourism demand changing from traditional sightseeing to in-depth experience. Through a deeply interactive and immersive agritourism experience, visitors feel emotional pleasure and satisfaction in enjoying beautiful scenery, acquiring agricultural production knowledge and green agricultural products, which promotes their sustainable tourism participation. Simultaneously, they are accustomed to using short video platforms to share travel experience, and the sharing of beautiful scenery and food under the camera strengthens the mediating role of perceived experience value. Differently, our study further subdivides perceived value into perceived green value and experience value, revealing the role of different types of perceived value in green agritourism. Moderating effects of environmental awareness and participation convenience The results show that environmental awareness and participation convenience moderate the influence of three characteristics on perceived green value and perceived experience value. That is, environmental awareness significantly enhanced the positive effect of the three features on perceived green value (β = 0.105 ~ 0.156), and accessibility amplified its effect on perceived experience value (β = 0.102 ~ 0.183). This echoes environmental psychology's research on the impact of individual values on environmental cognition (Schröder and Wolf, 2017; Bajrami et al., 2023). Visitors with higher environmental awareness are generally more proactive in identifying sustainability attributes in the natural environment, rural culture, and agricultural products and attributing them to environmental protection efforts (Sharma, 2021; Hadi and Johan, 2023). Thus, sustainable production practices of farmers are supported and a virtuous cycle of sustainable development is formed. In respect of cultural characteristics, tourists will project their identity onto cultural symbols to enhance their understanding of ecological wisdom and sustainability, which is consistent with the self-concept extension theory of Schultz (2001). With the rapid development of China's economy and the accelerated pace of urbanization, urban scenery can be seen everywhere. However, the fast-paced and stressful urban life has deepened the desire of consumers with high environmental awareness for leisurely time in the countryside with beautiful environment and fresh air. They usually have stronger environmental values and beliefs, which can be stimulated when they are in rural areas with strong natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics, thus enhancing their perception and identification with green values, which confirms the findings of Bajrami et al. (2023). This phenomenon also aligns with the basic characteristics of the sample in the questionnaire. Therefore, environmental awareness has an obvious moderating effect between the three characteristics and perceived green value. The positive adjustment of the relationship between natural features and perceived experience value by convenience of participation (β = 0.118) verifies the accessibility and experience transformation model of Chakraborty et al. (2023), indicating that ease of information acquisition and transportation convenience are important factors to enhance the experience value when participating in green agritourism. Chen et al. (2023) highlighted the impact of rural tourism experience on green consumption. Our study further expands this research by analyzing the role of participation convenience as a moderating variable, especially the impact of transportation convenience and information access on tourists' willingness to participate. Moreover, with the high popularity of short videos and the development of network platforms in China, more tourists are glad to share their unique experiences of nature, culture, education and other aspects of tourism with the public through short videos, which further improves the accessibility of information.Information and booking services of various famous tourist attractions can be easily accessed through mobile apps and online platforms. In contrast, if lacking convenient participation conditions in green agritourism, the cost of tourists' search and participation process is too high, and its experience value will be affected. Studies have shown that participation barriers will reduce tourists' experience value, while convenient information access and transportation conditions will significantly reduce these barriers and enhance tourists' perceived experience value (Chuang, 2023). Therefore, participation convenience exerts an obvious moderating effect between the three characteristics and the perceived experience value. Conclusion Key findings The study finds that the improved natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics caused by farmers' sustainable production practices significantly promoted the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism, supporting the H1 and H2, and partially supporting the H3. Additionally, the three characteristics significantly improve farmers' perception of green value and experience value and confirm the H4a, H4b, H4c, H5a, H5b and H5c. Furthermore, perceived green value and experience value significantly influence visitors’ participation, validating the H4d and H5d. Environmental awareness significantly moderates the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived green value,, validating the H6a, H6b and H6c. Participation convenience significantly regulates the relationship between the three characteristics and the perceived experience value, and the H7a, H7b and H7c are established. In other words, farmers' sustainable production practices and their three characteristics, perceived value, environmental awareness and participation convenience, have a complex impact on the sustainable participation behavior of green agricultural tourism. Recommendations In order to respond to the above findings, further promote farmers' sustainable production practices, improve natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics, so as to enhance tourists' perceived value, environmental awareness and participation convenience, the government, tourism operators and agricultural communities should work together to facilitate the sustainable development of green agricultural tourism. Because sustainable production practices have strong positive externalities, consumers' payment for green agricultural tourism mainly directly benefits tourism operators, and farmers who adopt sustainable production practices fail to fully obtain the dividends brought by externalities. This unbalanced distribution of benefits cannot fully encourage farmers to make efforts to improve three characteristics, which may ultimately affect the sustainability of green agricultural tourism. Therefore, the government, tourism operators and rural communities should cooperate to jointly establish a linkage return mechanism of green agricultural tourism-ecological account, and build a community of interests between tourism operators and farmers by returning part of the income of green agricultural tourism to farmers who implement sustainable production practices, which helps encourage farmers to adopt sustainable production practices and increase efforts to improve the three characteristics to further beautify the natural environment, innovate cultural experience and improve agricultural quality, and ultimately enhance tourists' perceived green value and experience value. In addition, consumers with high environmental awareness can be attracted by building a digital platform and holding short video contests of sustainable production practice and cultural experience in green agricultural tourism. Using diversified digital platforms to build convenient channels for participating in green agricultural tourism can improve participation convenience, promote more public recognition and participation in green agriculture, and enhance tourists' perceived green value and experience value. Based on the theoretical framework and empirical analysis proposed in this study, relevant stakeholders can jointly promote the sustainable development of green agricultural tourism through policy guidance, product optimization and community cooperation. Research limitations and future research directions This study has some limitations. Although several measures were taken to control control for common method bias in this study, there may still be biases caused by self-reporting methods that affect the accuracy of relationships between variables. The choice of variables also has limitations. This study focuses on the impact of sustainable production practices, perceived value, environmental awareness and convenience of participation on tourists' behavior, but fails to deeply explore other factors that may affect green agricultural tourism such as tourists' social and cultural background and economic conditions. In response to these limitations, future research could expand the survey area and use multi-source data including secondary and interview data to reduce the risk of common methodological bias. Secondly, a longitudinal study design is used to track changes in attitudes and behaviors of the same or similar groups at different time points to more systematically explore causal relationships between variables. Finally, the theoretical framework can be extended to include variables such as more respondents' sociocultural characteristics, economic conditions, occupational status, and local community support for green agritourism to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complex influencing factors in green agritourism. Declarations Ethical approval The evaluation survey questionnaire and methodology were examined, approved, and endorsed by the research ethics committee of Institute of Tourism and Cultural Industry Development Guizhou University on April 28th, 2025. The study meets the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research(2007).The procedures used in this study adhere to the tents of the declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent Starting from this study on January 21, 2025, freely-given, informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. 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Research and practice results show that the traditional agricultural tourism development model often leads to agricultural ecosystem overload (Boháč and Drápela, 2022) and homogenization of agricultural cultural landscapes (Yang et al., 2022). Given all this, farmers, as the micro-subjects of agricultural production and rural landscape creation, adopt the behavioral decision of sustainable production practices and change the value composition of agricultural tourism products by reshaping the multiple paths of natural space, cultural symbols and agricultural product values, which has become the key to solving the obstacles of agricultural tourism development (Soleimani and Momeni, 2022). Further, green agricultural tourism is undoubtedly a key path for rural economic revitalization and ecological restoration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGreen agricultural tourism, a new form of tourism that connects green agriculture with tourism, is gradually developed on the basis of concepts of green agriculture and agricultural tourism. Based on green and environmentally friendly agricultural production activities, it combines natural landscape, agricultural cultural resources and green agricultural products to attract tourists to participate in sustainable agricultural practices, enrich tourism experience, realize the educational value of tourism and stimulate tourists' ecological awareness, aiming at promoting ecological environment conservation and sustainable agricultural development (Ingrassia et al., 2023). What distinguishes green agritourism from traditional agritourism is that it promotes sustainable production practices with positive externalities (Styring et al., 2022), improves the environmental quality of tourist destinations (Roy et al., 2022), and enriches tourists' tourism experience to achieve the purpose of ecological protection and economic development. Its development will also encourage more farmers to adopt sustainable production practices and attain deep integration of agriculture and tourism (Ingrassia et al., 2023). Thus, clarifying the relationship between sustainable production practice and green agricultural tourism is not only of great academic significance, but also provides practical reference for the in-depth integration of agriculture and tourism in China and other developing countries around the world.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe relevant existing research shows obvious disciplinary divisions. Agricultural economics considers technology adoption mechanisms for farmers' sustainable production practices (Glover et al., 2019), policies and market incentives (Setsoafia et al., 2022; Mockshell et al., 2023) and performance evaluation (Ma et al., 2024)). While the tourism academic community focuses primarily on market demand characteristics of agricultural tourism, the factors affecting the behavior (Baby and Kim, 2024), its impact on rural economy (Bieloborodova, 2022) and ecology (Shen et al., 2020), and the participation mechanism of local communities and farmers(Kastenholz et al., 2018; Soulard et al., 2021). The development of sustainable agriculture found that farmers' sustainable production practices such as ecological fertilization, biological insecticide and circular farming have the functions of constructing characteristic agricultural landscape, enhancing environmental aesthetic value and activating local cultural memory, so as to further reconstruct the core competitiveness of agricultural tourism products through(Kastenholz et al., 2018). Some studies have explored the relationship between organic farms and tourism, which mostly emphasis on the impact of a single dimension, such as natural landscape attractiveness (García-Martín et al., 2016) or cultural authenticity (Andéhn and L 'Espoir Decosta, 2021) on tourist behavior. This study attempt to incorporates the three characteristics of sustainable production practices into a unified analytical framework, and reveal their compound effects on tourist behavior through differentiated pathways. This responds to the critique of segmented cultural analysis by Everingham et al. (2021) and provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the transformation of multiple values of agricultural systems into tourism capital.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eTheoretical basis and research hypotheses\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eTheoretical basis: Perceived value theory\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003ePerceived value theory asserts that consumers form value judgments through the trade-off between benefit acquisition and cost payment (Zeithaml, 1988), thus further making consumption decisions. Generally speaking, perceived value consists of multiple dimensions such as functional value, emotional value, social value, economic value, etc.(Rasoolimanesh et al., 2023). In different research backgrounds, it is further subdivided into different dimensions to measure individuals' overall feelings about products or services. However, the traditional division of perceived value is not enough to explain tourists' deep concern about the sustainability of the whole production-consumption link in the post-epidemic era. So the agritourism value hierarchy model is introduced into this study and deconstructed perceived value into perceived green value(PGV) and perceived experience value(PEV). The former involves environmental responsibility recognition and social well-being recognition. Specifically, in the process of tourism consumption, tourists pay attention to the cognition and recognition of sustainable production methods for physical health, social and environmental protection, including social value and environmental value (Testa et al., 2021), and the latter includes two aspects: cognitive activation and emotional immersion. The emotional value chain model(Regalado-Pezúa et al., 2023) is used to quantify the experience depth through multi-modal indicators of five-sense interaction intensity such as the vision of landscape aesthetics and the touch of farming experience. This reconstruction breaks through traditional dimensional divisions by including the situational variable visibility of production system (VPS).To demonstrate how farmers' sustainable practices enhance tourists' willingness to pay for hidden ecological benefits by augmenting embodiment of value perception(de Araújo et al., 2022). How can tourists perceived green value and experience value be linked to farmers' sustainable production practices? Attribution theory(Heider, 1958) offers a key explanatory framework for this study, that is, tourists' evaluation of perceived green value and perceived experience value is essentially a process of attributing observed results such as clear water quality and farming skills to farmers' behavioral characteristics.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eResearch hypotheses: direct effect, mediating effect and moderating effect\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDirect effect: The basic influence of three characteristics on participation behavior\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe meaningful end of sustainable production practices is the direct impact on environmental sustainability and ecological protection (Styring et al., 2022), which is represented by natural characteristics(NC). At the social level, promoting the inheritance of farming culture and social development (Song et al., 2022), is manifested as cultural characteristics(CC). The economic impact on agricultural economic benefits and livelihood improvement (Hessel et al., 2022) is reflected as agricultural characteristics(AC). These three characteristics are the multi-dimensional embodiment of the overall impact of green agricultural tourism. Choosing them as independent variables can measure the comprehensive influence of farmers' sustainable production practices in the three dimensions of environment, society and economy, and more accurately evaluate the role of sustainable production practices in promoting participation in green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSustainable agricultural production practices can reshape the natural character of farmland. For example, through eco-friendly management methods, soil organic matter content can be increased, earthworms and microbial activities can be promoted, soil structure and the quality of agricultural products can be improved(Rockström et al., 2021); Diversified farmland and reduced pesticide use provide habitat for pollinators, birds, and small mammals, while vibrant farmland scenes of butterflies and frogs replace the silence of traditional monoculture fields (Pywell et al,. 2015). These natural features consisted of healthy soils, landscape aesthetic substrates and biodiversity networks constitute the ecological base of green agricultural tourism and become the core resources to attract tourists (Roy et al., 2022; Badu, 2023). The enhancement of landscape aesthetic value elicits self-transcendent emotions, including love, compassion and awe, enabling tourists to obtain sensory enjoyment and emotional resonance (Zhao et al., 2024), which helps draw tourists closer to nature. Additionally, tourists' visual aesthetic feeling through social media sharing of beautiful scenery triggers the tourism motivation of others (Hausmann et al., 2022). Therefore, the restoration and strengthening of natural features by sustainable production practice can further boost green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSustainable production practice can strengthen the cultural characteristics of agriculture. Integrating sustainable production practices with farming culture through organic farming and ecological improvement of traditional farming tools can change the form of material cultural form of agriculture and reshape its intangible cultural core, including the continuation of related community cooperation norms and the intergenerational transmission of ecological values (Shen et al., 2020; Hassan et al., 2022).This integration offers tourists a diverse experience of understanding the innovative development of traditional farming culture, with the potential to attract tourists pursuing leisure and educational needs (Garzón et al., 2022). Digital narratives like sustainable practice scenes in short videos transform abstract sustainability into concrete and easy-to-understand cultural symbols (Chen et al., 2023). The authenticity of cultural landscapes, acquisition of farming knowledge and local narratives jointly evoke tourists' nostalgia and make them intend to pay for green tourism products (Shen et al., 2020; Garzón et al., 2022); Furthermore, the cultural logo formed by agricultural cultural heritage certification has emerged as a symbolic resource for tourists to build sustainable lifestyle identity (Everingham et al., 2021) and possesses considerable explanatory power for tourists' participation. This paper holds that the cultural characteristics influenced by sustainable production practice affect tourists' participation behavior through multiple paths such as educational function, emotional connection and symbolic value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSustainable production practices including educing chemical input, biological control of pests and diseases and improving the physical properties of agricultural products help agritourism destinations produce distinctive agricultural characteristics. Organic farming and diversified cultivation can increase the vitamin content and antioxidant levels of crops, making produce different from conventional products in appearance, taste and nutritional safety (El Bilali et al., 2021), which conveys functional value of health and safety to tourists (Barbieri et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2022), prompting them to form participatory decision-making. However, a few scholars argue that non-quality factors like price and convenience may be more influential on ordinary tourists' participation behavior (Holland et al., 2022), and even agricultural characteristics need to rely on additional conditions such as landscape aesthetics (e.g., pastoral scenery) to exert influence (Elshaer et al., 2023). In green agricultural tourism, can agricultural characteristics stimulate tourists' tourism participation behavior? This research asserts that the agricultural characteristics influenced by sustainable production methods can directly enhance sensory pleasure through the quality of agricultural products. This quality visibility and cultural touchability might lower the cognitive cost of tourists, and activate the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism because of intuitive sensory satisfaction or cultural resonance. Based on the above analysis, the following hypotheses are proposed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH1: Natural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices has a significant positive impact on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH2: Cultural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices significantly positively influences tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH3: Agricultural Characteristics improved by farmers' sustainable production practices has a strong positive impact on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMediating effect: Dual-path transmission of perceived green value and perceived experience value\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerceived green value includes social value and environmental value, reflecting visitors' acknowledgment of health advantages and environmental conservation. Perceived experience value encompasses functional value and emotional value, derived from tourists' firsthand experience in tourism. Current studies posit that perceived value plays a key role in tourists' tourism decision-making: the appearance of ecological restoration of natural landscapes prompts tourists' perception of value through direct senses. When tourists are immersed in the natural environment shaped by sustainable agriculture, ecological services such as air purification and water source protection and aesthetic quality bring pleasure through multi-sensory stimuli such as smell (fragrance of vegetation), hearing (insects and birds) and sight (flowers, grass and trees) (Sthapit et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2024; Ulrich, 1983), so that tourists can generate understanding and appreciation of health and environmental values (Rockström et al., 2021). Attention recovery theory (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989) states that natural landscape can relieve psychological pressure, enhance tourists' perception of the healing value of nature, and foster intimacy and identity with the environment. Attachment theory holds that tourists’ interaction with the natural environment (such as planting seeds by hand) will deepen their emotional attachment to the environment, thereby transforming the natural features maintained by the farmer into an integral part of the personal emotional experience (Ryan and Frederick, 1997; Kyle et al., 2004). These studies show that natural characteristics construct tourists' perceptions of green value and experience value through the dual paths of health and emotion. This research claims that green agritourism producers' sustainable production practices significantly shape high-quality natural features, and ultimately influence tourists' behavioral choices.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCultural characteristics shape tourists' green value identity via symbolic meaning and social norms, and affect their experiential value through interactive experience and knowledge acquisition. Traditional ecological knowledge conveys the ethics of symbiosis between man and nature, while tourists cultivate environmental responsibility through engagement in cultural activities(Berkes et al., 2000), thereby reinforcing their acknowledgment and endorsement of sustainable production practices (Hassan et al., 2022). Su et al. (2020) found that rural intangible cultural heritage displays can arouse tourists' attention to cultural sustainability, strengthening their recognition of environmental responsibility, perception and acceptance of green value by engaging in cultural activities such as biofertilizer production and grass treatment and experiencing its attached symbolic meaning (Garcia-Martín et al., 2016). Educational scenarios(such as ecological farmland tours and organic planting demonstrations) provided by tourist destinations can transform abstract culture into understandable and practical information, enhance the efficiency of visitors' acquisition of agricultural knowledge (Hassan et al., 2024) and meet their emotional needs for pleasure, appreciation and relaxation, thus strengthening the functional and emotional experience value of green agricultural tourism. Based on the points discussed above, this study holds that the reshaping of cultural characteristics by sustainable production practice might elevate tourists' perception of green value and experience value, form emotional resonance and deepen their commitment to participating behavior.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAgricultural characteristics play a key role in enriching tourists' sensory experience and emotional satisfaction with high-quality characteristics of agricultural products, thereby significantly enhancing their experience value (Lee and Peng, 2021). Dixit and Prayag (2022) emphasize that this experience should include tasting gourmet food and understanding the origin and production process of food, thus enabling visitors to gain richer cognitive and emotional value in their consumption. Feagan and Morris (2009) found that the traceability of agricultural products directly leads tourists to the associated perception that food safety equates to environmental friendliness. It can be inferred that the characteristics of high-quality green agricultural products brought by sustainable production practices enable tourists to better understand their production origins and environmental significance while enjoying fresh and nutritious offerings. This nutritious offerings experience not only fulfills tourists' functional requirements for health and nutrition, but also brings them pleasure and satisfaction at the cognitive and emotional levels, thus significantly enhancing their perceived green value and experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhen tourists acknowledge the health benefits and environmental contributions of green agricultural tourism, their perceived green value influences and enhances their incentive to participate. Tourists with high perceived green value believe that their consumption contributes to environmental protection, and they are willing to purchase organic products(Chen et al., 2023)). Meanwhile, the positive interaction experience between tourists and the natural environment and farming cultural activities will make them feel happy because of the knowledge acquired, which positively affects their sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism(Zelenski and Desrochers, 2021). Nonetheless, some studies assert that perceived green value will be covered by alternative mechanisms. For example, Pandža Bajs (2015) pointed out that if tourists attach more importance to the experience of fun such as picking, perceived experience value may have a stronger impact on behavior than perceived green value. For that, under the background of sustainable production practice, natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics can significantly affect tourists' perceived green value and perceived experience value, and ultimately stimulate tourists' sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following hypotheses:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH4: Natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics indirectly and positively influence participation behavior by enhancing tourists' perceived green value. Among them, natural characteristics (H4a), cultural characteristics (H4b) and agricultural characteristics (H4c) significantly affect tourists' perceived green value; Perceived green value has a significant positive effect on tourists' participation behavior in green agritourism (H4d).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH5: Natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics indirectly and positively affect participation behavior by augmenting tourists' perceived experience value. Among them, natural characteristics (H5a), cultural characteristics (H5b) and agricultural characteristics (H5c) significantly influence tourists' perceived experience value; The perceived experience value has a significant positive effect on tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism (H5d).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eModerating effect: Boundary conditions of environmental awareness and participation convenience\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo deeply understand the influence of individual intrinsic factors and external conditions on tourists' perceived value and participation behavior, this research introduces environmental awareness and participation convenience as moderating variables. Environmental awareness(EA) refers to an individual's degree of concern and sense of responsibility for environmental protection, which is used to explore whether it and the three characteristics together affect tourists' perceived green value. Its regulating effect on the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived green value is essentially the interaction process between tourists' intrinsic values and external scene signals. Participation convenience (PC) denotes the extent of accessibility to information and transportation for tourists in the process of participating in green agricultural tourism, a critical factor influencing consumer experience and satisfaction. Its moderating effect on the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived experience value is essentially a process of releasing experience potential by lowering the threshold of participation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental psychology believes that individuals' environmental awareness will affect their processing and response to environmental information. Tourists with higher environmental awareness place deeper environmental values and beliefs on the ecological genus in natural features and are more inclined to engage in sustainable behaviors(Schröder and Wolf 2017; Bajrami et al., 2023). Of course, in green agricultural tourism, when confronted with beautiful natural landscapes and biodiversity, such tourists are more likely to attribute these characteristics to the results of sustainable production practices protecting the environment and associate these practices with environmental preservation and health benefits, which in turn enhance their identification with green value (Sharma, 2021; Hadi and Johan, 2023). Besides, increased convenience of participation improves the accessibility and experience quality of natural characteristics (Chakraborty et al., 2023; Feng et al., 2021). For example, a clearly marked barrier-free trail enables travelers to easily reach the terraced landscape. Only then can the mist-shrouded valley evokes the emotional resonance of the unity of nature and man. If the path is rugged and unguided, tourists expend their energy searching for the route, which weakens the experience value of natural features (Berry et al., 2002).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe influence of cultural characteristics on the perceived green value is also dominated by the cognitive filtering of environmental awareness. According to self-concept extension theory (Schultz, 2001), environmentally conscious tourists are likely to associate cultural symbols with ecological wisdom. The impact of cultural characteristics on the experience value depends more on the decoding support of cultural symbols by convenience. Higher participation convenience helps eliminate the interference of \"search anxiety\" on the experience and increase the richness and depth of tourists' cultural experience. The research on rural China shows that after the introduction of QR code scanning audio guide, the complex process is decomposed into understandable steps, significantly improving tourists' perception of the value of traditional textile skills( Tzima et al., 2020) ).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe green value perception of agricultural characteristics depends more on the ability to interpret environmental awareness regarding technical ecological attributes. Among the tourists with high environmental awareness, the influence of agricultural characteristics on green consumption intention is significantly higher than that of those with low environmental awareness (Zhao et al., 2022). This suggests that environmental awareness not only amplifies the green value perception of agricultural characteristics, but also converts it into actual drivers of action. Participation convenience can lower the threshold of experience by finding high-quality green agricultural products through real-time information and traffic accessibility. Taking Nishiyama tourism in Japan as an example, Ohe (2016) discovered that when the transportation time is shortened by 30%, the depth of tourists' experience of local agricultural products (such as tasting frequency) increases by 22%, indicating that participation convenience can reduce the experience cost and increase the value conversion efficiency of agricultural characteristics. Thus the subsequent hypotheses are proposed.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH6: Visitors' environmental awareness positively mediates the relationship between natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, agricultural characteristics, and perceived green value. Environmental awareness plays a moderating role in the effects of natural characteristics (H6a), cultural characteristics (H6b), and agricultural characteristics (H6c) on perceived green value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eH7: Visitors' participation convenience positively influences the relationship between natural, cultural, and agricultural characteristics and perceived experience value. Participation convenience moderates the impact of natural characteristics (H7a), cultural characteristics (H7b), and agricultural characteristics (H7c) on perceived experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the above analysis, this paper takes tourists' green agricultural tourism participation behavior as the dependent variable, natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics affected by farmers' sustainable production practices as independent variables. Additionally, perceived green value and perceived experience value are identified as mediating variables. Environmental awareness and participation convenience are used as moderating variables, and personal traits are functioned as control variables. Finally, the specific theoretical framework model established is shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"Research methods","content":"\u003cp\u003eTo evaluate how farmers' sustainable production practices can influence tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism by enhancing their perceived value, hence fostering sustainable tourism behavior. The questionnaire survey method is adopted in this study, which is based on previous studies and combined with the specific background of green agricultural tourism. Data are collected from the survey of places with sustainable production practices. On the basis of descriptive statistical analysis, structural equation model is used to test the research hypothesis.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eQuestionnaire design\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe questionnaire comprises two parts: a scale to measure causality and an overview of the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The first part deals with the causal judgment, aiming to investigate the causal relationship between tourists' cognition of farmers' sustainable production practices and their perception of the value of green agricultural tourism, and their participation in green agricultural tourism. It includes six dimensions, namely, three characteristics affected by sustainable production practice, sustainable participation behavior, perceived experience value, perceived green value, environmental awareness and participation convenience. The 5 options for sustainable engagement behaviors refer to the research of Dixit and Prayag (2022), and are appropriately adapted to conform to the understanding habits of Chinese people, adding an item of purchasing agricultural products. Natural characteristics pertain to the literature on environmental improvement studies such as water conservation and soil health(Roy et al., 2022). Cultural characteristics refer to the research of Song et al. (2022). Perceived green value and experience value refer to the study of Chen et al. (2023) and Giddy and Webb (2018) on perceived value. These studies cover multiple dimensions of perceived value and they are adapted appropriately for the context of this study. The green value and experience value are crucial to understanding how tourists assess green agricultural tourism experience. The measurement of environmental awareness is based on the NEP-R measurement scale of Dunlap et al. (2000). It is widely utilized to evaluate individuals' view of natural environment relationships, and its scientific validity and accuracy are acknowledged in the domain of environmental psychology. Options are using the Likert five-level scale, the five classifications ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree, to ensure its sensitivity and the meticulousness of the response. The second part is the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents, including age, gender, education level, occupation, economic income and family composition, aimed at judging whether individuals with different characteristics in decision-making is different and if there are recognizable behavior patterns. Of course, these demographic indicators have been rigorously verified to effectively reflect the influence of various demographic variables on tourism participation, which helps better understand the characteristics of target groups. This paper places demographic questions at the end of the survey to minimize common method biases.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eData collection\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeitan County, Guizhou is one of the important tea producing areas in China. It possesses a geographical environment characterized by \"high altitude, low latitude and cloudy fog\", which provides a natural experimental field for studying the sustainability of tea production. The county has made remarkable achievements in promoting sustainable production methods, with most tea products having passed the EU pesticide residue standard certification, and actively promoted the integration and development of tea tourism, attracting a large number of domestic and foreign tourists by providing activities such as tea garden sightseeing, experiencing tea picking and tea making. Compared with other regions, this region not only has superior natural conditions, but also has leading conditions and practices in the combination of sustainable production and green agricultural tourism. It is an ideal region to study the interaction between the two with representativeness of sample.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn self-report questionnaires, factors such as questionnaire design, subjective factors of respondents and social expectations may result in common methodological bias (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986). In the process of data collection, anonymity and confidentiality are emphasized in the questionnaire description to guarantee the authenticity of the answers. Various process control measures, including reverse scoring items and random distribution of items with different latent variables are adopted in designing the questionnaire to reduce the social expectation bias of respondents and minimize the possible common method bias (CMB) (Podsakoff et al., 2003). In the peak period of spring tea collection from March to May 2023, researchers have been to Meitan County many times to conduct field research and interview tourists who participating in tea picking experience. A total of 587 questionnaires were gathered. Based on the completeness of answers and its logical consistency, 71 questionnaires are screened out as invalid questionnaires, the effective sample size is 516, and the effective rate is 87.9%. The minimum sample size should be 150 when the research model is less than 8 constructs with no unidentifiable constructs moderate commonalities. Furthermore, at a power of α = 0.05 and α = 80%, a moderate effect size requires at least 138 samples (Fritz and Mackinnon, 2007), therefore, this study has a sufficient sample size. After descriptive statistical analysis, covariance based structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Results analysis","content":"\u003ch2\u003eDescriptive statistics\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe gender distribution in the sample is almost 1: 1, with males close to 51% and females comprising around 49%, indicating a relatively balanced distribution. In terms of age distribution, respondents aged 30–39 (32.6%) and 40–49 (28.3%) accounts for the majority of the sample; 10.5% are under 30 years old; 28.7% are over 50 years old. Regarding educational background, 66.5% of the respondents have a university degree or above. The occupational status shows that the vast majority of respondents (79.3%) are on-the-job employees, and their main income level is above 48,000 yuan. Based on these personal characteristics, tourists who visit rural areas for leisure and vacation are mainly employed individuals with higher education and middle or above income. This phenomenon is consistent with the living habit of knowledge workers in the current society that tend to take their families to nearby villages to participate in agricultural activities (such as fruit picking) on weekends for pleasure (Liu, 2024).\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eMeasurement model\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eMultivariate normality is a necessary condition for multiple regression analysis and structural equation model. Absolute values of skewness statistic \u0026lt; 3 and absolute values of kurtosis statistic \u0026lt; 7 are often used as diagnostic criteria for multivariate normality (Kline, 2023). In this study, the maximum absolute value of skewness statistics and kurtosis statistics of each item is 1.041, and the maximum absolute value of kurtosis statistics is 0.997, which meet the assumption of normal distribution.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReliability analysis (RA) uses Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient to check the consistency of questionnaire research variables on each measurement item. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of each variable in this study is greater than 0.7, which is considered to have good internal consistency (Nunnally, 1978). CITC exceeds 0.5, indicating that the measurement items meet the research requirements. Furthermore, most of the \"Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted\" values are lower than the overall Cronbach's Alpha value of the corresponding variable, suggesting that most items have a positive effect on improving reliability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSPSS23.0 is used for exploratory factor analysis, and KMO and Bartlett's spherical test are performed on the scale. The result is KMO = 0.943, exceeding 0.7, and the Bartlett's spherical test value is significant (Sig. \u0026lt; 0.001), demonstrating that the questionnaire data fulfills the prerequisite requirements of factor analysis. To detect common method bias, Harman's one-factor test is used to test common method bias. Exploratory factor analysis of all measured items without rotation shows that a total of 8 factor eigenvalues are greater than 1, and the eigenvalue of the first factor is 12.137, accounting for 36.778% of the variance, which is below the cut-off of 40% (Podsakoff et al., 2003), indicating that the common method bias problem is within the acceptable range.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe principal component analysis method is employed for factor extraction, and the common factor is extracted with the characteristic root exceeds 1. When the factor is rotated, the maximum variance orthogonal rotation is used for factor analysis. A total of 8 factors are identified: natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, agricultural characteristics, perceived green value, perceived experience value, environmental awareness, participation convenience and participation behavior, and the total explanatory ability reached 72.198% more than 50%, indicating that the selected 8 factors are well representative. The factor load of each measurement item is greater than 0.5, while the cross-loading remains below 0.4. Each item falls into the corresponding factor, which has good structural validity.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe validation factor analysis includes a total of 33 measurement topics. Utilizing Amos23.0 to perform confirmatory factor analysis reveals that CMIN/DF is 1.191, which is less than the standard below 3, GFI = 0.940, AGFI = 0.928, NFI = 0.947, TLI = 0.990, IFI = 0.991, CFI = 0.991, all of which reach the standard above 0.9, RMR = 0.041 and RMSEA = 0.019 are both below 0.08, indicating that each fitting index meets the general research standard. Consequently, it can be considered that this model has a good matching degree (Hu and Bentler, 1999). The results of confirmatory factor analysis shows that the standardized factor load of each measurement index of variables exceeds 0.6. The composition reliability (CR) greater than 0.7 is ideal, where NC = 0.862, CC = 0.879, AC = 0.887, PGV = 0.856, PEV = 0.871, EA = 0.850, PC = 0.841, PB = 0.919, all items exceeds 0.7. The average variation extraction (AVE) exceeds 0.5 in the acceptable range, NC = 0.610, CC = 0.646, AC = 0.664, PGV = 0.599, PEV = 0.628, EA = 0.587, PC = 0.571, PB = 0.694, all items surpass 0.5, signifying that each variable has good convergent validity, as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eValidation factor analysis results\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariable\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eItem\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFactor loading\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCR\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAVE\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.748\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.862\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.610\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.788\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.785\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.803\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.869\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.879\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.646\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.844\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.776\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.718\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.876\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.887\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.663\u003c/p\u003e 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\u003cp\u003e0.772\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.856\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.599\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.784\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.789\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.749\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.850\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.870\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.627\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.768\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.769\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.778\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.747\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.850\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.587\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.815\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.771\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.729\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.808\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.841\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.570\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.745\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.685\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.777\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.807\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.919\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\" morerows=\"4\" rowspan=\"5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.694\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.789\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.767\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.914\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.879\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this study, the rigorous AVE method is used to evaluate the discrimination validity. The AVE square root of each factor must be greater than the correlation coefficient of each pair of variables, indicating that the factors have discrimination validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The AVE open root sign of each factor is larger than the standardized correlation coefficient outside the diagonal line, so this study maintain discriminatory validity, while the oblique lower triangle represents the correlation coefficient, as shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eValidity of discrimination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.781\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.467\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.804\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.512\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.474\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.815\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.492\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.480\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.532\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.774\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.521\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.478\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.562\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.450\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.792\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.227\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.245\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.203\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.304\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.186\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.766\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.423\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.431\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.389\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.338\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.424\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.221\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.756\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePB\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.525\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.534\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.516\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.537\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.611\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.206\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e.459\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.833\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ch2\u003eStructural model\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo test the hypotheses in this study, the structural model is evaluated using maximum likelihood estimation. The proposed model has good fitting indicators and can explain the hypothesis relationship between variables: CMIN/DF = 1.396 (\u0026lt; 3), all indicators of GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI, IFI, CFI are above the ideal 0.9 threshold (GFI = 0.952, AGFI = 0.940, NFI = 0.960, TLI = 0.990, IFI = 0.991, CFI = 0.991), and RMR, RMSEA are below the ideal 0.080 cutoff (RMR = 0.042, RMSEA = 0.023) (Hu and Bentler, 1999).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFigure \u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e shows the test results of 11 hypotheses. Firstly, the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism is significantly directly and positively influenced by natural characteristics (β = 0.111, p \u0026lt; 0.05) and cultural characteristics (β = 0.183, p \u0026lt; 0.05), and H1 and H2 are established; However, agricultural characteristics have no significant effect on the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism (β = 0.025, p \u0026gt; 0.05), and H3 is not valid. Secondly, natural characteristics (β = 0.25, p \u0026lt; 0.05), cultural characteristics (β = 0.219, p \u0026lt; 0.05), and agricultural characteristics (β = 0.358, p \u0026lt; 0.05) have significant positive effects on perceived green value, therefore, H4a, H4b and H4c are true. Natural characteristics(β = 0.286, p \u0026lt; 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.19, p \u0026lt; 0.05), and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.368, p \u0026lt; 0.05) exert considerable positive influences on the perceived experience value, and H5a, H5b and H5c are valid. On the whole, the influence degree of these three on perceived green value and perceived experience value is ranked as follows: agricultural characteristics \u0026gt; natural characteristics \u0026gt; cultural characteristics, indicating that they play a decisive role in shaping tourists' perception of green value and experience value. Finally, perceived green value(β = 0.22, p \u0026lt; 0.05) and perceived experience value(β = 0.391, p \u0026lt; 0.05) have significant positive effects on tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism, hence validating H4d and H5d. The impact of perceived experience value on participation behavior (β = 0.391) is significantly greater than that of perceived green value (β = 0.22), indicating that improving tourists' experience value perception is a more critical driving factor in encouraging tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism.To sum up, the test results of 11 hypotheses reveal the role of natural characteristics, cultural characteristics, and agricultural characteristics in shaping tourists' perceived green value and perceived experience value of green agritourism, and how these perceived factors affect tourists' participation behavior, the path diagram among variables is shown in Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this study, Bootstrapping is used to verify the mediation effect. If the bootstrap confidence interval does not contain 0, the corresponding indirect, direct or total effect is significant (Hayes, 2017). The Bootstrap method is run 5000 times in Amos23.0 to yield the level values of bias-corrected versus percentile at 95% confidence.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe estimated total effects of natural, cultural, and agricultural characteristics are 0.278, 0.306 and 0.247, respectively. They have significant indirect effects on sustainable participation through perceived green value and perceived experience value, respectively. Both effects can be proved by the fact that both bias-corrected and percentile do not contain 0 in 95% confidence intervals. Meanwhile, natural characteristics and cultural characteristics have significant direct effects on perceptual behavior, and the direct effect of agricultural features on perceptual behavior is 0.025. Its bias-corrected and percentile contain 0 in 95% confidence interval, indicating that the direct effect is not apparent. Therefore, all the three characteristics have significant total and indirect effects on participation behavior, but only natural characteristics and cultural characteristics have direct effects, while the direct effects of agricultural characteristics are insignificant. This means that although agricultural characteristics affect participation behavior, it occurs more indirectly through its influence on perceived green value and perceived experience value, rather than directly affecting participation behavior.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDespite the advantages of structural equation model (SEM) in handling latent variable relationships, the regression-based method is widely recognized and applied in testing the moderating effects(Hayes, 2017). It can intuitively reveal the changes in the influence of independent variables, regulating variables and interaction terms on dependent variables when they are gradually introduced, and the results are easy to explain and present. This approach is also widely employed in research practice in the field of economic management (Hayes and Rockwood, 2020). Therefore, it is reasonable and effective to choose hierarchical regression analysis method to test the moderating effect in this study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e model 3 demonstrates that the interaction terms of environmental awareness with natural characteristics(β = 0.156, p \u0026lt; 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.105, p \u0026lt; 0.05) and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.129, p \u0026lt; 0.05) all have positive effects on perceived green value, suggesting that the interaction effects are notable. It shows that environmental awareness plays a positive regulating role between the three characteristics and perceived green value. Therefore, H6a, H6b and H6c are supported.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental awareness regulation test\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"2\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePGV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.492*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.446*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.459*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.203*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.181*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC * EA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.156*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.243\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.281\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.305\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.243\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.039\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.024\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e164.561*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e100.454*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e74.971*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.480*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.432*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.441*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.198*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.192*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC * EA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.105\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.231\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.268\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.278\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.231\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.037\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.011\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e153.982*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e93.692*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e65.853*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.532*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.491*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.492*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.205*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.189*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC * EA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.129\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.284\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.324\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.34\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.284\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.04\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.016\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e203.378*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e122.729*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e87.910*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e model 3 presents the interactive items of participation convenience with natural characteristics(β = 0.118, p \u0026lt; 0.05), cultural characteristics(β = 0.102, p \u0026lt; 0.05) and agricultural characteristics(β = 0.183, p \u0026lt; 0.05) all exhibit positive and significant effects on perceived green value, indicating that participation convenience positively moderates the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived experience value. Therefore, H7a, H7b and H7c are established.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eParticipate convenience adjustment test\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePEV\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eM3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eβ\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.521*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.417*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.423*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.247*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.267*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNC * PC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.118*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.272\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.322\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.335\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.272\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.013\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e191.801*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e121.773*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e86.116*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.478*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.363*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.362*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.267*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.296*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCC * PC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.102*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.229\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.287\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.296\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.229\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.058\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.01\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e152.346*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e103.171*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e71.925*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.562*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.468*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.483*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.242*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.288*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAC * PC\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.183*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.315\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.365\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.396\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eR2 Change\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.229\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.058\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.01\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e236.831*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e147.435*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e111.699*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":" \u003cp\u003eThe research results show that the natural and cultural characteristics influenced by farmers' sustainable production practices directly affect tourists' participation behavior. The three characteristics indirectly act on participation behavior through perceived green value and perceived experience value. Environmental awareness significantly moderates the relationship the three characteristics and perceived green value, while participation convenience also has a marked regulating role between the three characteristics and perceived experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eThe direct effect of three characteristics on the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eOur finding suggests that farmers' sustainable production practices significantly and positively affect tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism by improving natural and cultural characteristics, supporting H1 and H2. The influence of agricultural characteristics on tourists' participation behavior is less obvious than expected, partially supporting H3.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn terms of natural characteristics, the improvement of the environment by sustainable production practices makes the countryside have the characteristics of beautiful natural scenery and biodiversity. It addresses the demands of people living in the fast-paced era to get close to nature, enhances their sense of identity with the improved environment, and further strengthens their willingness to participate in green agricultural tourism. The result supports the bioaffinity hypothesis of a natural affinity between humans and the natural environment (Shen et al., 2022; Badu, 2023).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCultural characteristics have a significant impact on tourists' participation behavior (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.183, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), which supports the opinions of Shen et al. (2020) and Everingham et al. (2021). That is, sustainable production practices are often integrated with traditional farming culture and ecological values, and the attractions of rural tourism include factors like village cultural heritage(Shen et al., 2020). It means that green agricultural tourism can become a platform for the inheritance of sustainable production culture, presenting tourists with the original farming life and humanistic customs.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eContrary to our expectations, the effect of agricultural characteristics on tourists' participation behavior is not obvious (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.025, p\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), which is partly consistent with the view of Sharpley and Vass (2006). They believe that although the functional value (such as health and safety) of high-quality agricultural products (such as organic vegetables and ecological fruits) can draw some tourists, its impact may be diluted by non-quality factors such as price and convenience. Holland et al. (2022) further pointed out that the participation of ordinary tourists in decision-making is more driven by additional conditions such as landscape aesthetics and cultural experience, rather than the quality of a single agricultural product, which suggests that the independent attractiveness of agricultural features is limited in green agritourism. Tourists prefer green and safe agricultural products (Xu et al., 2022), but this affects their consumption satisfaction at the destination more than the primary motivation for their journey. This indicates that tourists have a recognition of quality agricultural products after visiting, and the role of agricultural characteristics in participation in the decision-making stage is limited.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec17\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eThe mediating role of perceived green value and perceived experience value\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eEmpirical studies also show that natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics mediate tourists' green agritourism participation behavior through perceived green value and perceived experience value. Agricultural characteristics have the most significant influence on perceived green value and perceived experience value, followed by natural characteristics and cultural characteristics, and the driving effect of perceived experience value on participatory behavior is stronger than that of perceived green value. These findings have supported the opinions of previous studies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAgricultural characteristics play a decisive role in shaping the green value of tourists. Compared with traditional agricultural methods, sustainable production practices bring the image of high-quality agricultural products and environmental friendliness(Feagan and Morris, 2009). When tourists obtain traceable organic agricultural products or personally experience the organic planting process, they will establish a direct correlation between safe, healthy and high-quality agricultural products without chemical residues and environmental protection at the cognitive level (Rockstr\u0026ouml;m et al., 2021), stimulating them to recognize the perceived green value of green agricultural tourism (Dixit and Prayag, 2022). Sustainable production practice is not only a technical application, but also a trigger to motivate tourists' emotional participation, which can promote the development of green agricultural tourism behavior. This supports the research of Giddy and Webb(2018) and Zelenski and Desrochers (2021) that natural beauty can improve tourist experience, and expands the research of Ren et al. (2019) on the sensory impact of natural beauty on tourists' experience.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCultural characteristics take traditional ecological knowledge and local cultural beliefs as carriers, aiming to transform abstract environmental responsibility into concrete cultural symbols, convey the concept of harmonious coexistence between man and nature to tourists, so that they can strengthen their identification of green values at the psychological and attitudinal levels(Berkes et al., 2000; Hassan et al., 2022). Many Chinese tourists have a deep cultural identity and emotional attachment to rural culture and traditional farming, which forms a dialogue with Hassan et al. (2022) on the impact of cultural experience and knowledge education on tourism experience.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBoth perceived green value and perceived experience value can significantly positively affect tourists' participation behavior in green agricultural tourism, but the influence of perceived experience value (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.391) on behavior is significantly higher than that of perceived green value (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.22). It shows that tourists' sensory and emotional needs for beauty, fun, physical and mental pleasure are still important. For most ordinary tourists, although they agree with the green value of environmental protection, being able to eat delicious, beautiful and fun is the core driving force that ultimately promotes their tourism behavior. Therefore, if there is a lack of pleasant activity design or the inability to meet the needs of diversified leisure education, even if tourists agree with the importance of green value, they may not choose to actually participate. This finding provides new evidence for the theory of experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 2011) and extends upon Chen et al. (2023) regarding an empirical demonstration of tourist behavior in organic agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePerceived green value and experienced value serve as a bridge between farmers' sustainable production practices and tourists' participation in green agricultural tourism. Under the background of green development strategy, Chinese tourists' perception of green value in green agricultural tourism has gradually increased, making their tourism demand changing from traditional sightseeing to in-depth experience. Through a deeply interactive and immersive agritourism experience, visitors feel emotional pleasure and satisfaction in enjoying beautiful scenery, acquiring agricultural production knowledge and green agricultural products, which promotes their sustainable tourism participation. Simultaneously, they are accustomed to using short video platforms to share travel experience, and the sharing of beautiful scenery and food under the camera strengthens the mediating role of perceived experience value. Differently, our study further subdivides perceived value into perceived green value and experience value, revealing the role of different types of perceived value in green agritourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec18\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eModerating effects of environmental awareness and participation convenience\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe results show that environmental awareness and participation convenience moderate the influence of three characteristics on perceived green value and perceived experience value. That is, environmental awareness significantly enhanced the positive effect of the three features on perceived green value (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.105\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;0.156), and accessibility amplified its effect on perceived experience value (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.102\u0026thinsp;~\u0026thinsp;0.183). This echoes environmental psychology's research on the impact of individual values on environmental cognition (Schr\u0026ouml;der and Wolf, 2017; Bajrami et al., 2023). Visitors with higher environmental awareness are generally more proactive in identifying sustainability attributes in the natural environment, rural culture, and agricultural products and attributing them to environmental protection efforts (Sharma, 2021; Hadi and Johan, 2023). Thus, sustainable production practices of farmers are supported and a virtuous cycle of sustainable development is formed. In respect of cultural characteristics, tourists will project their identity onto cultural symbols to enhance their understanding of ecological wisdom and sustainability, which is consistent with the self-concept extension theory of Schultz (2001).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWith the rapid development of China's economy and the accelerated pace of urbanization, urban scenery can be seen everywhere. However, the fast-paced and stressful urban life has deepened the desire of consumers with high environmental awareness for leisurely time in the countryside with beautiful environment and fresh air. They usually have stronger environmental values and beliefs, which can be stimulated when they are in rural areas with strong natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics, thus enhancing their perception and identification with green values, which confirms the findings of Bajrami et al. (2023). This phenomenon also aligns with the basic characteristics of the sample in the questionnaire. Therefore, environmental awareness has an obvious moderating effect between the three characteristics and perceived green value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe positive adjustment of the relationship between natural features and perceived experience value by convenience of participation (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.118) verifies the accessibility and experience transformation model of Chakraborty et al. (2023), indicating that ease of information acquisition and transportation convenience are important factors to enhance the experience value when participating in green agritourism. Chen et al. (2023) highlighted the impact of rural tourism experience on green consumption. Our study further expands this research by analyzing the role of participation convenience as a moderating variable, especially the impact of transportation convenience and information access on tourists' willingness to participate. Moreover, with the high popularity of short videos and the development of network platforms in China, more tourists are glad to share their unique experiences of nature, culture, education and other aspects of tourism with the public through short videos, which further improves the accessibility of information.Information and booking services of various famous tourist attractions can be easily accessed through mobile apps and online platforms. In contrast, if lacking convenient participation conditions in green agritourism, the cost of tourists' search and participation process is too high, and its experience value will be affected. Studies have shown that participation barriers will reduce tourists' experience value, while convenient information access and transportation conditions will significantly reduce these barriers and enhance tourists' perceived experience value (Chuang, 2023). Therefore, participation convenience exerts an obvious moderating effect between the three characteristics and the perceived experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusion","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec20\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eKey findings\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe study finds that the improved natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics caused by farmers' sustainable production practices significantly promoted the participation behavior of green agricultural tourism, supporting the H1 and H2, and partially supporting the H3. Additionally, the three characteristics significantly improve farmers' perception of green value and experience value and confirm the H4a, H4b, H4c, H5a, H5b and H5c. Furthermore, perceived green value and experience value significantly influence visitors\u0026rsquo; participation, validating the H4d and H5d. Environmental awareness significantly moderates the relationship between the three characteristics and perceived green value,, validating the H6a, H6b and H6c. Participation convenience significantly regulates the relationship between the three characteristics and the perceived experience value, and the H7a, H7b and H7c are established. In other words, farmers' sustainable production practices and their three characteristics, perceived value, environmental awareness and participation convenience, have a complex impact on the sustainable participation behavior of green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec21\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eRecommendations\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn order to respond to the above findings, further promote farmers' sustainable production practices, improve natural characteristics, cultural characteristics and agricultural characteristics, so as to enhance tourists' perceived value, environmental awareness and participation convenience, the government, tourism operators and agricultural communities should work together to facilitate the sustainable development of green agricultural tourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBecause sustainable production practices have strong positive externalities, consumers' payment for green agricultural tourism mainly directly benefits tourism operators, and farmers who adopt sustainable production practices fail to fully obtain the dividends brought by externalities. This unbalanced distribution of benefits cannot fully encourage farmers to make efforts to improve three characteristics, which may ultimately affect the sustainability of green agricultural tourism. Therefore, the government, tourism operators and rural communities should cooperate to jointly establish a linkage return mechanism of green agricultural tourism-ecological account, and build a community of interests between tourism operators and farmers by returning part of the income of green agricultural tourism to farmers who implement sustainable production practices, which helps encourage farmers to adopt sustainable production practices and increase efforts to improve the three characteristics to further beautify the natural environment, innovate cultural experience and improve agricultural quality, and ultimately enhance tourists' perceived green value and experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, consumers with high environmental awareness can be attracted by building a digital platform and holding short video contests of sustainable production practice and cultural experience in green agricultural tourism. Using diversified digital platforms to build convenient channels for participating in green agricultural tourism can improve participation convenience, promote more public recognition and participation in green agriculture, and enhance tourists' perceived green value and experience value.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the theoretical framework and empirical analysis proposed in this study, relevant stakeholders can jointly promote the sustainable development of green agricultural tourism through policy guidance, product optimization and community cooperation.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eResearch limitations and future research directions\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study has some limitations. Although several measures were taken to control control for common method bias in this study, there may still be biases caused by self-reporting methods that affect the accuracy of relationships between variables. The choice of variables also has limitations. This study focuses on the impact of sustainable production practices, perceived value, environmental awareness and convenience of participation on tourists' behavior, but fails to deeply explore other factors that may affect green agricultural tourism such as tourists' social and cultural background and economic conditions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn response to these limitations, future research could expand the survey area and use multi-source data including secondary and interview data to reduce the risk of common methodological bias. Secondly, a longitudinal study design is used to track changes in attitudes and behaviors of the same or similar groups at different time points to more systematically explore causal relationships between variables. Finally, the theoretical framework can be extended to include variables such as more respondents' sociocultural characteristics, economic conditions, occupational status, and local community support for green agritourism to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complex influencing factors in green agritourism.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003ch2\u003eEthical approval\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe evaluation survey questionnaire and methodology were examined, approved, and endorsed by the research ethics committee of Institute of Tourism and Cultural Industry Development Guizhou University on April 28th, 2025. The study meets the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research(2007).The procedures used in this study adhere to the tents of the declaration of Helsinki.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eInformed consent\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eStarting from this study on January 21, 2025, freely-given, informed consent to participate in the study was obtained from all participants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eY.Yx and Y.Xr wrote the main manuscript text and Y.Yx prepared figures and tables. All authors reviewed the manuscript.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData availability\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe data set generated during and analyzed during the current study is not publicly available due to ethical restrictions and privacy agreements between the authors and participants.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnd\u0026eacute;hn M, L\u0026apos;Espoir Decosta JP (2021) Authenticity and product geography in the making of the agritourism destination. J Travel Res 60(6):1282\u0026ndash;1300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287520940796\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBaby J, Kim DY (2024) Sustainable agritourism for farm profitability: Comprehensive evaluation of visitors\u0026apos; intrinsic motivation, environmental behavior, and satisfaction. Land 13(9): 1466. https://doi.org/10.3390/land13091466\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBadu PR (2023) Organic farming practices for horticultural sustainability. 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J Agric Environ Ethics 35(3):15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-022-09881-8\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6479672/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6479672/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWith the acceleration of global urbanization and agricultural transformation, traditional agricultural tourism has fallen into a development dilemma due to ecological overload and cultural homogenization. However, by integrating sustainable production practice and tourism experience, green agricultural tourism has become the critical path to balance ecological protection and economic development. Based on the empirical analysis of green agricultural tourism areas in China, this study adopts structural equation model and finds that: (1) Natural characteristics and cultural characteristics significantly promote tourists' participation behavior, while the direct influence of agricultural characteristics is insignificant, but play a crucial role in participation through the mediating effect of perceived green value and perceived experience value. (2) The driving intensity of perceived experience value on behavior is significantly higher than that of perceived green value, highlighting the dominance of experience economy in green agritourism. (3) Environmental awareness prominently regulates the impact of three characteristics on perceived green value. Tourists with high environmental awareness are more inclined to interpret natural landscapes, cultural symbols and green agricultural products as the results of sustainable practices, thus enhancing green value recognition. (4) Participation convenience highly regulates the influence of the three characteristics on the perceived experience value. Higher transportation convenience and information availability effectively reduce the threshold of tourism experience and amplify tourists' value perception of natural landscape, cultural interaction and agricultural product experience. The mechanism of \"tourism-ecology linkage\" and the optimization strategy of digital platform are eventually proposed to enhance visitors' engagement.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Exploring how natural, cultural and agricultural characteristics influence tourists' sustainable participation in green agricultural tourism","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-19 08:27:43","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6479672/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"0a3c7f01-924c-4451-8392-bb8d79838c75","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 19th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":48664656,"name":"Social science/Economics"},{"id":48664657,"name":"Social science/Development studies"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-07-16T21:23:22+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-19 08:27:43","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6479672","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6479672","identity":"rs-6479672","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}