Nature-Based Wellness Resort Experiences and Sustainable Behavioral Intention: The Mediating Roles of Positive Emotional Experience, Leisure Satisfaction, and Attitude Toward Sustainable Resort Use

Nature-based wellness resorts have emerged as tourism spaces that integrate leisure, wellness, and sustainability. However, the psychological mechanism through which these resort experiences shape visitors’ positive emotions and sustainable behavioral intention remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on Schmitt’s strategic experiential modules and the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study examines the relationships among nature-based wellness resort experiences, positive emotional experience, leisure satisfaction, attitude toward sustainable resort use, and sustainable behavioral intention. An online survey was conducted among Korean adults who had visited green-season nature-based wellness resorts in Gangwon-do and Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, within the previous 12 months. Using 786 valid responses, the data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results showed that feel, act, and relate experiences significantly influenced positive emotional experience, with act experience having the strongest effect, whereas sense and think experiences were not significant predictors. Positive emotional experience positively influenced leisure satisfaction, attitude toward sustainable resort use, and sustainable behavioral intention. Leisure satisfaction and attitude toward sustainable resort use also had positive effects on sustainable behavioral intention. In addition, mediation analysis confirmed that leisure satisfaction and attitude toward sustainable resort use partially mediated the relationship between positive emotional experience and sustainable behavioral intention. These findings extend experiential marketing theory and the S-O-R framework to nature-based wellness resort research and demonstrate that positive emotional experience serves as a key psychological pathway linking resort experiences to sustainable behavioral intention.