The Sustainable Development of Organic Agriculture: The Role of Wellness Tourism and Environmental Restorative Perception

Abstract

This study explored the impact of environmental restorative perception (ERP) on loyalty through place attachment and healthy image within organic agriculture. The visitors to organic agritourism in Hualien County and Taitung of Taiwan were taken as samples and 410 valid questionnaires were collected. LISREL 8.52 and regression analysis were adopted to explore the relationship among different variables. It was found that ERP is helpful for raising place attachment, healthy image, and loyalty to tourist destinations, and the non-toxic and organic sustainable environment created in organic agritourism has a restorative perception that can be used to attract tourists improving their health through travels, contributing to the transition of rural tourism to wellness tourism.

1. Introduction

Health-driven tourism grows fast at home and abroad, and this tendency will last for a long time [1,2]. Tired of the crowded, polluted, and stressed environment, people are beginning to seek a better environment [3]. As travels can relieve physical and mental stress, more people hope to seek wellness of body, mind, and spirit and raise their sense of happiness through travels [4]. Some research proves that the natural environment can provide a high capability of physical and psychological restoration [5,6,7,8], give people a sense of profound tranquility, eliminate weariness, and generate a restorative experience [9]. Based on the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) introduced by Kaplan and Kaplan (1989), the environment with features of “being away”, ”extent”, “fascination”, and “compatibility” is called a restorative environment that can achieve restoration of attention [10]. Most research has focused on the relationship between environmental resources and attentional restorative perception, but seldom explored the relationship between attentional restorative perception and health-related travels. Does the good restorative experience obtained through travel experiences impact the healthy image of tourist destinations? Are the functional attachment and affective identification of tourist destinations generated? Can place attachment be generated? Can loyalty to wellness tourism be raised? Attentional restorative perception impacts tourists’ sense of happiness, place attachment and healthy image are related to the development of tourist destinations, and loyalty holds the key to the development of wellness tourism. These questions are all linked with the development of wellness tourism. Therefore, the relationship between loyalty and environmental and attentional restorative perception, place attachment, and healthy image facilitates the development of wellness tourism.

The integration of organic agritourism and rural tourism, organic agriculture, and a non-toxic and healthy environment will help tourists detach from the hustle and bustle in cities, enjoy a leisurely and idyllic rural life, and meet the needs of a healthy and slow-paced life. This is new-type wellness tourism. Choo and Jamal (2009) put forth the concept of eco-organic farm tourism, arguing that new-type tourism can promote sustainable agriculture, local development, cultural and environmental protection, well-being, and learning [11]. Privitera (2010) holds that organic agritourism can protect both the environment and natural resources [12]. Shen, Liu, and Tseng (2020) studied the relationship of landscape, experience, and attachment in organic agritourism destinations, and found that the landscape impacts experience, and experience impacts attachment [13]. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan boast clean air and fertile soil, and are not easily polluted by the neighboring environment. Thus, there are favorable conditions for organic agriculture. Recently, people have raised their awareness of improving their health and protecting the environment and the Earth. Organic agritourism is a non-toxic, healthy, and slow-paced travel mode, making organic agritourism more popular. However, past relevant research seldom studied the issue from the perspective of health tourism. Therefore, this paper will focus on the relationship between loyalty and restorative perception of environmental attention, place attachment, and healthy image, and take organic agritourism in Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan as the object of empirical analysis to verify the modes and theories.

2. Literature Review and Introduction to Study Area

2.1. Environmental Restorative Perception

Restoration is the power of restoring a person’s health and body, and it is identified as the process of psychophysiological changes [8]. Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) introduced the Attention Restoration Theory (ART) to explain that the reduction of mental fatigue can restore directed attention [10]. The ART holds the fatigue of directed attention will cause some negative results, such as irritability, inability to plan, lower communication sensitivity, and increased operation mistakes. In addition, directed attention can be restored through the environment, and environmental features. Such as being away, extent, fascination, and compatibility, can restore attention. Being away means that the environment makes people far away from daily life [5,9], thus reducing the use of directed attention and providing chances for restorative rest [14]. Extent refers to whether the environment can produce a feeling of endless extension and put people in another world [9], allows the rest of directed attention, and has the possibility of further exploration [6], thus restoring spirit. Fascination refers to whether the environment can appeal to people and attract people’s attention [15], but natural landscapes can relax people through producing non-directed attention and bring a restorative experience. Compatibility refers to one environment that supports personal preference and intension [9], and it helps individuals achieve their desired intension or activities [10]. For instance, the natural environment is often regarded as highly compatible because natural the environment can strike a chord with people’s liking. An environment can be called a restorative environment when the environment has such features, and the experience obtained by individuals through a restorative environment is called a restorative experience or perception. Based on the ART, Hartig et al., (1997) developed the perceived restorativeness scale (PRS), expounding the environment with the effect of perceived restorativeness having the following four features: being away, fascination, compatibility, and consistency [15]. Laumann, Garling, and Stormark (2001) designed a restorative component scale for measuring the environment, including novelty, extent, fascination, and compatibility [14].

According to Scopelliti and Giuliani (2005), restorativeness is the result of a complex place experience, in which cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral components are considered together with the physical aspects of the environment [16]. Li and Chiou (2016) hold that ERP refers to whether tourists feel that their body, mind, and spirit are positively recovered in the tourist environment [17]. Past research focused on the varied degrees of restoration in different natural landscape types [6,7,18]; restoration is higher when tourists have a higher preference for the environment [18,19,20]. Kuo, Hsieh and Lin (2016) found that attention will be restored more when tourists have a higher visual and non-visual preference for the forest environment [21]. However, little research explored the impact of restorative perception on travel behaviors. As the health-driven tourist market is growing, it is significant to study whether restorative perception is a vital factor of travel selection, and whether it impacts tourists’ healthy image, recognition, and dependence on destinations.

2.2. Place Attachment

Place attachment is the emotional or affective bond between persons and special places [22,23,24]. Moore and Graefe (1994) stated that human attachment to nature and special places is called place attachment in environmental psychology [24]. Place attachment holds the key to unique attractiveness and competitiveness for tourist destinations, and it can be used for predicting loyalty to destinations [25,26] or revisit willingness [27] Place dependence and place identity are often used as measurement dimensions of place attachment [26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. Place dependence refers to tourists’ dependence degree on local special environments or facilities, and it emphasizes the functional significance of unique environments or facilities [22,33]. Place identity refers to the psychological and emotional input, meaning individual affective bond and belonging, and individual thinking of such environments, and affective attachment and a sense of belonging will be generated through the combination of attitude, belief, preference, feeling, value, purpose, and behavior tendency [28]. The restorative environment in tourist destinations can produce a restorative perception, meet health needs, raise tourists’ satisfaction for destinations, add travel value, and form affective bonds with destinations, thus raising their dependence on and recognition of destinations.

2.3. Healthy Image of Tourism

Destination image is defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas, emotions, and impressions [34,35], it impacts tourists’ consideration, choice, and decision of destinations [36,37], and impacts the choice process of destinations and the behaviors of post-decision adjustment, including involvement (on-site experience), evaluation (satisfaction), future behavioral intension, and loyalty [36,38,39,40]. In wellness tourism, health is closely linked to the environment [41]. Therefore, this study holds that tourists’ healthy image refers to tourists’ impression of and understanding of health brought by tourist activities and the environment, and it exerts an impact on the assessment and choice of destinations.

Lusby (2015) holds that stress relief and health improvement are major factors in wellness tourism, and the natural environment can bring people high psychological restorative capability [42], offer a sense of tranquility, eliminate mental fatigue, and generate restorative experiences. Thus, healthy image brought by tourist destinations can impact the choice of destinations. Because people want to seek transcendence, nature. And rehabilitation from destinations [42,43]. However, few scholars have studied the impact of restorative perception on the healthy image of destinations, and the impact of healthy image on revisit willingness and loyalty.

2.4. Loyalty

Oliver (1999) defined loyalty as a deeply held commitment to re-purchasing or re-patronizing preferred goods or services consistently in the future [44]. Backman & Veldkamp(1995) proposed that loyalty can be defined as a committed behavior that is manifested by a propensity to participate in certain activities [45]. Thus, tourists would like to revisit destinations and recommend the places to others [40,46,47].

2.5. Introduction to Study Area

This study was conducted in Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan. Hualien and Taitung are located in the east of Taiwan. In 2020, the population was 534744 [48]. This area is surrounded by mountains on three sides, faces the Pacific Ocean on one side, and has beautiful scenery, clean air, and fertile soil. The area has not been polluted by the industry in Western Taiwan. It is very suitable for organic agriculture cultivation and is known as the back garden of Taiwan. In order to promote organic agriculture, Taiwan began a large number of organic cultivation experiments in Hualien in 1994, and established an organic agriculture village in Fuli Township in 2000, and an organic Promotion Committee in 2004 [49]. According to the statistics of Taiwan’s global information network on organic agriculture, the area of organic planting land in Hualien and Taidong has increased from 502 hectares in 1994 to 3880 hectares in 2021, an increase of 672.91%, In addition, according to the Taiwan tourism survey report of the Tourism Bureau, it is estimated that about 10.7 million tourists will travel to Hualien and Taidong for more than two days in 2020, which shows that Hualien and Taidong have great potential to develop organic agricultural tourism [13].

3. Research Method

3.1. Research Structure and Hypotheses

3.1.1. Relationship between Restorative Perception and Place Attachment

Korpela and Hartig (1996) hold that restorative environments can result in tourists’ place attachment [50]. Marcu, Uzzell, and Barnett (2011) stated that outskirts are a restorative place, and residents will form their sense of identity after long-term experience in outskirts [51]. Li and Chiou (2016) explored the relationship of ERP, place attachment, and psychological well-being among the elderly and middle-aged, finding that ERP exerts a significant positive impact on place attachment and psychological well-being [17]. You, Liu, Ai, Huang, and Lan (2018) discussed the relationship between the usage features of campus greenland and ERP, finding that ERP and preference have a positive correlation with place attachment [52].

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Restorative perception has a significant positive impact on place attachment.

3.1.2. Relationship between Restorative Perception and Healthy Image

Many scholars argue that natural environments have the function of restoring people’s physical and psychological health [6,53]. In environments close to nature, tourists can obtain positive physical or psychological experience from travel activities, thus restoring their physical and psychological health [5]. Cattell, Dines, Gesler, and Curtis (2008) hold that the restorative benefits from environments can alleviate stress and maintain health and well-being [54]. Hartig et al., (1997) found that natural environments are of high restorative capability, and they can reduce stress and promote positive emotions [15]. Huang et al., (2008) observed that picturesque natural landscapes can please viewers, dissipate their fatigue, provide a sense of profound tranquility, eliminate mental fatigue, and generate a restorative experience [19]. Relevant research has focused on the impact of natural environments on restoration of attention. Both waterscapes and greening landscapes help people restore from pressure and attention fatigue through visual perception or environmental experience [7,18,55].

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Restorative perception exerts a significant positive impact on healthy image.

3.1.3. Relationship between Place Attachment and Loyalty

Tourists’ experiences in destinations and their emotional bonds with destinations will generate place dependence on tourist destinations [25,56,57,58]. Place attachment can link the relationship between tourists and destinations, it holds the key to the unique attractiveness and competitiveness for destinations, and it impacts the loyalty to destinations [25,26]. In wellness tourism, tourists can achieve a comfortable state of body, mind, and spirit through using natural environments and leisure and recreation facilities [59]. The choice of destinations is very important because the places tourists try to seek should be transcendental, natural, and rehabilitative environments [43,60,61]. The environment in destinations can increase tourists’ place attachment via restorative perception, which will raise tourists’ loyalty.

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Place attachment has a significant, positive impact on loyalty.

3.1.4. Relationship between Healthy Image and Loyalty

When tourists have a positive image of destinations, they will be more likely to choose the destinations [37]. Chen and Tsai (2007) pointed out that tourists’ image of destinations and their satisfaction have a positive impact on behavioral intention [39]. Destination image exerts a positive impact on revisit intention [62]. Liu, Lin, and Lin (2012) found that the image of leisure farm consumers has a significant positive impact on willingness to travel, and has a positive impact on willingness through self-image congruence [63]. Oliver (1999) holds that the satisfaction for destination image will impact loyalty [44]. Fornell (1992) pointed out tourists’ satisfaction and destination image will impact tourists’ loyalty [64]. Ramseook-Munhurruna, Seebalucka and Naidoo (2015) found that destination image has a direct impact on satisfaction and loyalty, and has an impact on satisfaction and loyalty via cognitive value [47]. Kanwel, Lingqiang, Asif, Hwang, Hussain and Jameel (2019) discovered that destination image has a direct impact on loyalty and revisit willingness, and has an impact on loyalty via Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) [65]. As wellness tourism aims to improve physical health through travel, healthy image has a positive impact on loyalty.

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Healthy image has a significant positive impact on loyalty.

3.1.5. Interference of Healthy Image

Kaplan and Kaplan (1989) hold that one preferential environment may become a restorative environment [10]. Korpela and Hartig (1996) argued that one favorite place can show a restorative experience that is helpful for emotional development and place identity [50]. Huang et al., (2008) discovered that environmental preference exerts a significant positive impact on ERP [19]. Mueller and Kaufmann (2001) hold that destinations of wellness tourism are places where the body, mind. and spirit interact with the environment, showing the close link between health and the environment [41]. This study holds that healthy image refers to tourists’ impression of and understanding of health brought by tourist activities and destination environment, and it exerts an impact on the assessment and choice of destinations. The result shows that a healthy image may disturb the relationship of restorative perception, place attachment, and loyalty.

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

Healthy image has a positive interference on the impact of restorative perception on place attachment.

Hypothesis 6 (H6).

Healthy image has a positive interference on the effect of place attachment on loyalty.

Thus, the research frame was established as Figure 1:

3.2. Questionnaire Design

This study took a questionnaire survey as the main method. The questionnaire was composed of five parts, such as PRS, place attachment, healthy image, loyalty, and demographic variables. PRS was based on the four components of a restorative environment proposed by Kaplan, including being away, fascination, extent, and compatibility, and 13 items were included on the basis of the studies of Hartig, et al., (1997), Laumann, et al., (2001), Huang et al., (2008), and Hartig et al., (1997) [14,15,19]. For place attachment, there were four items, i.e., the image of wellness tourism, environment is helpful for physical health, natural and healthy living environment, and organic and non-toxic sustainable environment according to Moore and Graefe (1994) and Shen et al., (2020) [13,24]. Based on Oliver (1999), Ramseook-Munhurruna et al., (2015), and Shen et al., (2020), loyalty was measured with the loyalty to organic agricultural villages, organic agricultural products, and organic agritourism [13,44,47].

To ensure the discrimination and homogeneity of item measurement for different respondents, SPSS 21.0 was employed for item analysis. The criteria for retaining items are questions that the item must pass a test of both CR values reaching a significance level (p < 0.05), a correlation between the item and the total items above 0.5, and Cronbach alpha if the item is deleted above 0.7. The test of the CR values and the correlation between the item and the total items are also presented in

Table 1. Project analysis on the questionnaire items.

	Mean	SD	Critical Ratio	Item–To–Total Correlations	Cronbach Alpha If Item Deleted	References
Being away (BAW)						Hartig, et al., (1997) [15], Laumann, et al., (2001) [14] Huang et al., (2008) [19]
Away from urban hustle and bustle	4.54	0.66	12.145 ***	0.516	0.942
Away from worldly experiences	4.39	0.73	13.021 ***	0.535	0.942
A place where I can relax completely	4.35	0.74	13.315 ***	0.591	0.941
Free from trivial affairs	4.35	0.66	21.901 ***	0.734	0.940
Extent (EXT)						Hartig, et al., (1997) [15], Huang et al., (2008) [19]
Environment integrating with nature	4.41	0.67	19.306 ***	0.664	0.941
Vast field landscape	4.41	0.73	11.988 ***	0.543	0.942
Extend many beautiful associations	4.42	0.77	13.545 ***	0.556	0.942
Fascination (FAS)						Laumann, et al., (2001) [14], Huang et al., (2008) [19]
Environment deserves my stay	4.37	0.66	16.104 ***	0.586	0.942
Environment deserves my exploration	4.32	0.70	20.343 ***	0.695	0.940
Environment attracts my attention	4.27	0.74	16.837 ***	0.634	0.941
Compatibility (COM)						Laumann, et al., (2001) [14], Huang et al., (2008) [19]
The environment is suitable to activities I like to do.	4.36	0.72	18.229 ***	0.698	0.940
I can enjoy myself in the place.	4.29	0.72	20.684 ***	0.724	0.940
I can quickly adapt to the environment.	4.28	0.73	19.143 ***	0.692	0.940
Place attachment (PA)						Moore and Graefe (1994) [24] Shen et al., (2020) [13]
I like to visit organic village very much.	4.13	0.78	18.688 ***	0.667	0.940
I will consider organic village at the thought of travel.	3.81	0.85	14.491 ***	0.601	0.941
Identify organic agritourism development	4.31	0.73	17.278 ***	0.663	0.941
Deep love for the organic village	4.01	0.82	16.818 ***	0.656	0.941
Healthy image (HI)						Shen et al., (2020) [13]
Image of health tourism	4.38	0.67	15.820 ***	0.623	0.941
Environment is good for physical health	4.32	0.69	17.896***	0.691	0.940
Natural and healthy living environment	4.46	0.71	13.765 ***	0.557	0.942
Organic and non-toxic sustainable environment	4.53	0.72	13.043 ***	0.526	0.942
Loyalty (LO)						Oliver (1999) [44], Ramseook-Munhurruna et al., (2015) [47] Shen et al. (2020) [13]
Loyalty to organic agriculture	3.94	0.86	14.993 ***	0.617	0.941
Loyalty to organic agricultural products	3.89	0.85	14.390 ***	0.601	0.942
Loyalty to organic agritourism	4.08	0.79	15.266 ***	0.588	0.942

Note: *** p < 0.001.

. All the CR values of the 30 items are significant so that they are retained.

3.3. Questionnaire Survey

In this study, convenience sampling was adopted to conduct a questionnaire survey of organic agritourism tourists in Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan. The size of the samples was determined according to the sample size equation of Wu Wanyi (2019) [66]. If the sampling error is less than 5% (e < 0.05) and the confidence interval is 95%, the size of samples will be 385 according to the equation. The questionnaire survey was conducted online. Questionnaires were dispatched from 1 April to 5 May, 2019. In the end, 420 questionnaires were collected, and the rate of valid questionnaires was 97.62% after 10 invalid ones were removed.

4. Empirical Analysis

4.1. Sample Structure Analysis

The sample structure analysis is shown in

Table 2. Descriptive characteristics of the samples.

Items	Variables	N	%	Items	Variables	N	%
Gender	Male	160	39.0	Occupation	Student	113	27.6
	Female	250	61.0		Civil servant	91	22.2
Marital status	Single	231	56.3		Agriculture	31	7.6
	Married	179	43.7		Business	48	11.7
Age	21–30 yrs	156	38.0		Service	83	20.2
	31–40 yrs	112	27.3		Unemployed	30	7.3
	41–50 yrs	98	23.9		Others	14	3.4
	Above 51 yrs	44	10.7	Monthly income (NT$)	<20,000	105	25.6
Education	Elementary and middle	112	27.3		20,001–30,000	77	18.8
	High school	59	14.4		30,001–40,000	109	26.6
	College	178	43.4		40,001–50,000	59	14.4
	Graduate and above	61	14.9		Above 50,001	60	14.6

. Of the tested samples, the proportion of women (61.0%) was higher than that of men (39.0%). The proportion of single samples (56.3%) was higher than that of married samples (43.7%). The samples between 21 and 30 were the most, followed by the ones between 31 and 40 (27.3%). As for educational background, the samples with college education were the most (43.4%), followed by the ones with primary and middle school education (27.3%). As for occupation, students took account of the largest part (27.6%), followed by military personnel, civil servants, and teachers (22.2%). The samples with a monthly salary between 30,001 and 40,000 were the most, followed by the ones below 20,000 (25.6%).

4.2. Factor Analysis and Reliability Analysis

This study conducted confirmatory factor analysis and reliability and validity analysis on the relevant variables. The results are shown in

Table 3. Factor analysis and reliability analysis.

Constructs	M	SD	EV	Explanatory Variable V (%)	Cronbach’s α	CR	AVE
Being away (BAW)	4.39	0.57	2.627	65.668	0.811	0.880	0.657
Extent (EXT)	4.41	0.60	2.059	68.625	0.766	0.865	0.686
Fascination (FAS)	4.32	0.56	1.910	63.667	0.715	0.840	0.637
Compatibility (COM)	4.31	0.60	2.248	74.949	0.832	0.890	0.749
Place attachment (PA)	4.06	0.70	3.041	76.023	0.894	0.760	0.760
Healthy image (HI)	4.43	0.53	2.245	56.120	0.739	0.836	0.561
Loyalty (LO)	3.97	0.78	2.631	87.714	0.930	0.877	0.877

Note: M, mean; SD, standard deviation; FL, factor loading; EV, eigenvalue; V (%), variance (%); AVE, average variance extracted.

. The confirmatory factor analysis on “being away” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.524–0.908, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 65.668%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “extent” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.630–0.920, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 68.625%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “fascination” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.756–0.852, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 63.667%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “compatibility” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.840–0.889, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 74.949%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “place attachment” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.841–0.887, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 76.023%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “health perception” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.723–0.786, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 56.120%. The confirmatory factor analysis on “loyalty” showed that the factor loadings of different factors were 0.916–0.947, higher than 0.5. The cumulative explanatory variable was 87.714%.

Wu Wanyi (2019) suggested that factor loadings should be higher than 0.5, and Guielford (1965) held that the consistency reliability is high, medium, and low if the coefficient of Cronbach’s α is above 0.7, between 0.35 and 0.7, and below 0.35, respectively [66,67]. In addition, the average variance extracted (AVE) from some dimensions was higher than 0.5, showing that there was enough convergent validity [68]. The Cronbach’s α was between 0.715 and 0.930, higher than 0.7. The value of composite reliability was between 0.760 and 0.890, higher than 0.7. The AVE was between 0.561 and 0.877, higher than 0.5. These show that the internal consistency of different factors was high in reliability and validity.

4.3. Solution of Modes

The potential independent variable in this study was ERP, and the potential dependent variables were place attachment, healthy image, and loyalty. The relationship among the different variables, calculated with LISREL8.52, is shown in Figure 2. The solid line represents the significant path after verification, and the number in brackets is the t value.

As for the standards of the model, the coefficient of error variation should not be negative, and the significance level must be achieved. In addition, the value of standard error should not be too high. In the goodness–of–fit index of the model, the coefficient of error variance was positive, and the estimation value achieved the significance level, showing that the estimated value of the model conformed to standards, which is shown in

Table 4. Path coefficient goodness–of–fit index of the basic model.

Path	Coefficient	t-Value	E.V.	E. V. t-Value	C.R.	AVE
RP→BAW	0.81	19.08	0.34	10.45	0.853	0.591
RP→EXT	0.77	17.89	0.40	11.59
RP→FAS	0.76	17.48	0.42	11.80
RP→COM	0.73	16.54	0.47	12.49

. In addition, the composite reliability of potential variables was 0.853, and AVE was 0.591, indicating high reliability and validity.

As for the overall goodness–of–fit index, the Chi-square was 6.12 (df = 5), Chi-square ratio was 1.24, goodness–of–fit index (GFI) was 1.00, adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) was 0.98, root–mean–square residual (RMR) was 0.008, RMSEA was 0.023, normed fit index (NFI) was 1.00, non-normed fit index (NNFI) was 1.00, and comparative fit index (CFI) was 1.00. The values of the above indexes were within the acceptable scope, showing that the overall goodness–of–fit had reached a good standard.

5. Results and Discussions

5.1. Results

The verification of the hypotheses in Figure 2 is as follows: H1, the influence coefficient of ERP on place attachment is 0.53, and the t value is 11.15, reaching the significance level and validating H1. H2, the influence coefficient of place attachment on loyalty is 0.63, and the t value is 14.82, reaching the significance level and validating H2. H3, the influence coefficient of ERP on healthy image is 0.95, and the t value is 24.16, reaching the significance level and verifying H3. H4, the influence coefficient of healthy image on loyalty is 0.07, and the t value is 1.68, reaching the significance level and verifying H4.

Figure 2 shows that there were two paths for ERP to impact loyalty: first, ERP → place attachment → loyalty, and the impact effect was 0.3461. Second, ERP → healthy image → loyalty, and the impact effect was 0.0665. The total effect of ERP on loyalty was 0.4126. These show that ERP can impact loyalty through place attachment. ERP, healthy image, and place attachment exerted an impact on loyalty, of which place attachment had the greatest impact, followed by ERP.

Taking place attachment as the dependent variable, ERP as the independent variable, and healthy image as a confounding variable, a regression analysis was conducted on the interference of ERP on place attachment. The result is shown in

Table 5. Analysis of the interference effect of healthy image on ERP and place attachment.

Model	Non-Standardized Coefficient		Standardized Coefficient	t	Significance
	Estimated Value B	Standard Error	Beta Distribution
Constant	1.243	0.440		2.826	0.005
RP	0.451	0.200	0.324	2.249	0.025
RP*HI	0.048	0.024	0.283	2.000	0.046

. The R2 was 0.333, F value was 103.652, and p was 0.000, reaching the significance level. The influence coefficient of ERP on place attachment was 0.324, and the t-value was 2.249, reaching the significance level. The interference of ERP on place attachment was 0.283, and the t-value was 2.000, reaching the significance level. This shows that healthy image exerted a significant, positive interference on the impact of ERP on place attachment. The higher healthy image would produce a higher impact on ERP on place attachment, verifying H5.

Taking loyalty as the dependent variable, place attachment as the independent variable, and healthy image as a confounding variable, a regression analysis was conducted on the interference of healthy image to the impact of place attachment on loyalty. The result is shown in

Table 6. Analysis of the interference effect of healthy image on place attachment and loyalty.

Model	Non-Standardized Coefficient		Standardized Coefficient	t	Significance
	Estimated Value B	Standard Error	Beta Distribution
Constant	1.140	0.193		5.916	0.000
PA	0.535	0.104	0.476	5.141	0.000
PA * HI	0.036	0.016	0.206	2.223	0.027

. The R2 was 0.448, F value was 168.510, and p was 0.000, reaching the significance level. The influence coefficient of place attachment on loyalty was 0.476 and the t value was 5.141, reaching the significance level. The interference of healthy image on the impact of place attachment on loyalty was 0.206, and the t value was 2.223, reaching the significance level. This shows that healthy image exerted a significant positive interference on the impact of place attachment on loyalty. The higher healthy image would produce a higher impact of place attachment on loyalty, verifying H6.

Thus, the verification of hypotheses is shown in

Table 7. Tested results of the hypotheses.

Hypotheses	Coefficient	t-Value	Test	Test Result
H1	0.53	11.15	p < 0.05	Acceptance
H2	0.63	14.82	p < 0.05	Acceptance
H3	0.95	24.16	p < 0.05	Acceptance
H4	0.07	1.68	p < 0.05	Acceptance
H5	0.283	2.00	p < 0.05	Acceptance
H6	0.206	2.22	p < 0.05	Acceptance

:

5.2. Discussion

5.2.1. Restorative Perception Impacts on Place Attachment

Tourists’ ERP of destinations exerts a very significant positive impact on place attachment, and relevant research has proven that ERP can result in recognition of place attachment [17,50,51,52]. The result is different from the previous studies that verified the effect of place attachment on restorative perception [69,70]. Tourists of wellness tourism hope to pursue wellness of the body, mind, and spirit and increase their sense of happiness [4], showing that health benefits are vital to tourists. The destinations with ERP can help tourists produce a sense of profound tranquility, eliminate mental fatigue, and generate restorative experience [9], which can increase tourists’ psychological well-being when they have restorative perception in body and mind [17,54,71]. Thus, tourists will increase their place attachment to destinations.

5.2.2. Restorative Perception Impacts on Healthy Image

ERP in destinations exerts a very significant positive impact on healthy image, showing that environments with high restorative capability can please tourists, reduce their stress, eliminate fatigue, and benefit their psychological state [5,19,54], thus lifting tourists’ healthy image of destinations. Wan et al., (2020) researched color space perceptions and the restorative effects of blue space based on color psychology, the results of which showed that there was a strong correlation between residents’ sense of pleasure and color space color matching. Space color can restore people’s attention and contribute to physical and mental health [72].

5.2.3. Place Attachment Impacts on Loyalty

Place attachment exerts a significant positive impact on loyalty. Relevant research has shown that place attachment can link the relationship between tourists and destinations, it holds the key to the unique attractiveness and competitiveness for destinations, and impacts the loyalty to destinations [25,26]. The past research seldom focused on the relationship of restorative perception, place attachment, and loyalty, but this study shows that restorative perception can impact loyalty through place attachment because wellness tourists hope that destinations can achieve a comfortable state of body, mind, and spirit [59]. Destinations need to satisfy an environment of transcendence, nature, and rehabilitation [43,60,61]. Destinations can increase their unique attractiveness and loyalty when they can make tourists generate restorative perception, and produce emotional bonds and recognition of destinations.

5.2.4. Healthy Image Impacts on Loyalty

Healthy image has a significant positive impact on loyalty. As health-driven tourists consider whether destinations can help their physical and psychological health, the healthy image of destinations will impact the selection of destinations. Relevant research has shown that destination image impacts the choice process of destinations, the behaviors of post-decision adjustment, and loyalty [36,38,39,40]. Han et al., (2018) conducted a study on the demand for travel for well-being and enhancing health by Korean domestic tourists and concluded that preference for health travel is comparatively high [2]. The past research seldom focused on the relationship of restorative perception, healthy image, and loyalty, but this study verifies the positive impact of restorative perception on loyalty through healthy image.

5.2.5. Healthy Image Moderates Both the Impact of Restorative Perception on Place Attachment and the Impact of Place Attachment on Loyalty

Healthy image is the moderating variable of the impact of restorative perception on place attachment and the impact of place attachment on loyalty. When tourists have a better healthy image of destinations, restorative perception will exert a greater impact on place attachment, and place attachment will have a greater impact on loyalty, indicating that a healthy image is important for destinations because it connects the environment with the human body, mind, and spirit [41], and it will impact the influence relationship of restorative perception, place attachment, and loyalty.

6. Conclusions and Implications

6.1. Conclusions

Although the wellness tourism market is booming, little research has focused on travel behaviors. Therefore, this paper constructs a model of restorative perception to place attachment and loyalty, and explores the consumption behavior of wellness tourism from the travel behavior perspective. In addition, this study, taking the visitors of organic agritourism that stresses the organic, non-toxic, healthy, and slow-paced living as the objects, verifies that restorative perception indeed exerts a positive impact on place attachment and healthy image, and place attachment and healthy image exert a positive impact on loyalty. Furthermore, healthy image exerts a positive effect on restorative perception, place attachment, and loyalty. It shows that tourists will have higher place attachment and a better healthy image when the destinations provide an environment with a higher restorative perception. Meanwhile, tourists will increase their loyalty to destinations as their pursuit of health can be satisfied. Different from the results of previous studies that showed that local attachment has a positive effect on restorative perception, the results of this study verify that restorative perception has a positive effect on local attachment. There are few previous studies that explored the moderating effect of health image on the local attachment of restorative perception. This study confirmed that the moderating effect of health image is very significant. Previous studies on organic agricultural tourism lacked the impact of restorative perception, health image, and local attachment. The results of this study verified the impact of restorative perception, health image, and local attachment. The study of the impact of restorative perception on place attachment and loyalty from the perspectives of wellness tourism and sustainable environmental development is of innovative and practical value, and has reference value for relevant studies.

6.2. Implications

For tourists pursuing health, the natural environment provides not only sightseeing and rest, but also health experience, which should be paid attention to in landscape setting and operation management. Higher ERP can increase the attractiveness of destinations, and raise the health value of travels. Thus, destinations should also raise tourists’ place attachment besides providing a leisurely environment good for physical and psychological health, lifting tourists’ emotional attachment and recognition, and generating loyalty.

In landscape design and management, destinations shall strengthen the function of restorative perception, provide a comfortable and stress-relieving environment, improve travel quality and health value, and raise tourists’ recognition and dependence, thus increasing the attractiveness of destinations, and tourists’ revisit willingness and loyalty. This study shows that the two components being away and extent are the most important in restorative perception, and a higher extent and being away will have higher restorative attention. The living environment and travel experience, as well as natural environments such as vast field landscapes, more easily make tourists relaxed and increase their health perception. Kuo et al., (2016) pointed out that tourists’ visual environment preference for natural landscape exerts the greatest impact on attention restoration, and a vast environment is helpful for attention restoration and health improvement [21].

As more and more people want to achieve a comfortable state of body, mind, and spirit through travels, health value is one major factor of travel behaviors. In tourism destinations, developers should provide environments with restorative perception, include health benefits into marketing management strategies, and emphasize ERP capability. In addition, the tourist products, services, and experiences shall provide tourists with restorative perception experiences to meet their health needs and foster a healthy image of destinations. Furthermore, destinations should leverage the role of a healthy image to strengthen the connection of the restorative environment with place attachment, increase tourists’ loyalty, and highlight wellness tourism to guide tourists and promote the sound development of the tourism market.

Hualien and Taitung are surrounded by mountains and face the sea. They are located in a narrow belt from east to west and a long belt from north to south. There are rich ecological resources and unique natural landscapes. They form a purely natural environment free from industrial pollution, which is an important condition for the development of organic agriculture. In Taiwan, the area of agricultural land that each farmer can cultivate is very small. Agriculture has developed to exquisite agriculture and accumulated very exquisite agricultural technology, which makes Taiwan’s agriculture show very diversified development and is more conducive to the development of organic agriculture. Many food safety incidents have occurred in Taiwan before, and organic non-toxic agricultural products meet people’s demand for food safety, which can promote the development of organic agriculture and improve farmers’ income. In addition, with the increase of people’s demand for environmental protection and health tourism, organic agriculture has been developed into a belt-shaped block of organic agriculture tourism in Hualien and Taitung to provide tourists with rural life experience, so that the rural culture can be preserved and developed, showing that organic agriculture tourism has the characteristics of sustainable tourism. Therefore, it is suggested that the government should vigorously advocate for and support organic agricultural tourism to make a unique tourism industry in Hualien and Taidong so as to attract domestic and foreign tourists to experience organic agricultural tourism and increase Taiwan’s competitiveness in the international tourism market.

7. Limitations and Future Research

This study verifies the restorative perception features of organic agritourism in Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan, and restorative perception can impact loyalty through place attachment and healthy image. Due to the limitations in this study, some suggestions are put forward for future research. 1. This study takes organic agritourism in Hualien and Taitung of Taiwan as the object of empirical analysis, so it should be further verified whether the findings in this paper can be applied to organic agritourism in other regions. 2. In terms of a healthy image, this study mainly focused on the environmental image of destinations. Thus, the health features, such as wellness tourism or organic agritourism, can be included to enrich the connotation of healthy image of tourism. 3. Many destinations are developing wellness tourism to meet people’s increasing needs, so travel consumption behaviors should be further studied. 4. Given the significance of the environment for wellness tourism, does environmental preference impact restorative perception? As experience is the core value of tourism, what experience and value can be produced in restorative perception? Thus, based on the model in this study, environmental preference, experience, and experience value can be included to expand the research scope and practical value of wellness tourism.