Understanding Revisit Intention in Ethnic Cultural Festivals: The Roles of Motivation, Perceived Risk, and Destination Image

Festival tourism has become an important mechanism for cultural preservation and destination development, yet empirical research on ethnic minority festivals in emerging Asian destinations remains limited. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates how festival motivations and perceived risk influence destination image, attitude, and revisit intention in the context of Chăm cultural festivals in Khánh Hoà Province, Vietnam. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework, a structural model is developed to explain tourists’ behavioral intentions toward festival revisitation. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey administered to festival attendees, yielding 510 valid responses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the proposed relationships and mediating effects. The results reveal that escape and cultural exploration motivations significantly enhance visitors’ attitudes, while escape and novelty positively influence festival destination image. Perceived risk negatively affects revisit intention but unexpectedly exerts a positive effect on destination image, suggesting a complex role of risk perceptions in culturally authentic festival settings. Attitude and destination image both significantly predict revisit intention, with destination image exerting the strongest direct effect. Mediation analysis further confirms that destination image partially mediates the relationship between perceived risk and revisit intention, whereas attitude plays a limited mediating role. The findings extend festival tourism theory by integrating TPB and S–O–R in an underexplored ethnic and cultural context and offer practical insights for sustainable management, risk communication, and destination branding of cultural festivals in Vietnam and similar emerging destinations.