How does the destination digital environment promote tourist well-being in heritage tourism?

Purpose – This study aims to examine how the destination digital environment (DDE) empowers and engages tourists during their visit to a mega heritage tourism site – the Palace Museum of Beijing, an information-intensive destination – and evaluate how it ultimately promotes tourist well-being. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a quantitative design, with a questionnaire as the instrument for data collection (n = 492). Structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. Findings – The results demonstrated positive associations between DDE and tourist satisfaction as well as their well-being. The results also showed that tourists’ empowerment and engagement played chain and parallel mediating roles between DDE and well-being, as well as between DDE and satisfaction. Practical implications – The findings provide practical implications to destination management organizations and tourism operators in further utilizing and synthesizing the use of digital services. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to connect DDE and tourist well-being. It is also a pioneering study in identifying the mediating role of empowerment and engagement in tourist experience under DDE.