Ryan, ChrisCheryl, Cockburn-WoottenMai, Xuan Tai2025-12-022025-12-022025-12-01https://hdl.handle.net/10289/17801In recent years, wellness tourism has developed into a rapidly growing segment of the global tourism industry, particularly driven by increasing public interest in achieving and maintaining physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Despite this growth, wellness retreats—a distinctive and transformative subsector of wellness tourism—remain underexplored in academic literature. Grounded in the increasing urgency of mental health as a global development priority (United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being), this study investigates how wellness retreat experiences foster tourists' holistic wellbeing and their loyalty to the destination through the lens of customer perceived value. Drawing on Sheth, Newman, and Gross (1991)’s theory of consumption values and supported by the concept of Transformation Economy (Pine & Gilmore, 2011), and multidimensional wellness frameworks, this study aims to (1) explore the dimensions of perceived value in wellness retreat experiences, (2) develop and validate a multidimensional measurement scale of perceived value of wellness retreat experiences, (3) investigate the association between tourists’ perceived value and destination loyalty, and (4) identify combinations of value dimensions that foster high levels of destination loyalty. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach was employed, incorporating qualitative thematic analysis of 936 qualified reviews of wellness retreat visitors on TripAdvisor and Google Maps Reviews, followed by quantitative surveys of 159 wellness retreat attendees at the Resolution Retreats, New Zealand. To analyse the collected quantitative data, this study employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) as a symmetrical analysis method and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) as an asymmetrical technique. This integration served to strengthen the findings and construct a composite picture of customer perceived value dimensions on the destination loyalty of wellness retreat attendees. The findings of the Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five dimensions of perceived value: Nutritional, Functional, Emotional, Social and Educational, and Ecological Healing. PLS-SEM results confirmed that perceived value significantly drives destination loyalty, while customer-employee interaction negatively moderates this relationship, challenging prior assumptions about the role of interpersonal engagement in tourism and hospitality contexts. Moreover, fsQCA identified five distinct configurations of value dimensions that are sufficient for high loyalty, demonstrating that different combinations can lead to similar positive desired outcomes, depending on visitor experiences and value propositions. Theoretically, this research advances the wellness tourism literature by differentiating wellness retreats as a distinct niche, thereby deepening the conceptualisation of eudaimonic value within tourism experiences. Furthermore, it applies the consumer perceived perspective to enhance the prediction of tourists’ decision-making processes. This study also addresses the existing methodological gaps by demonstrating the transformative potential of mixed-methods approaches within the tourism and hospitality discipline. By integrating PLS-SEM and fsQCA to capture both linear and non-linear patterns in visitor behaviour, this study underscores how methodological advancements can improve our understanding of complex research phenomena. Practically, the research provides a robust measurement instrument for assessing wellness retreat experiences and offers strategic guidance to wellness managers, tourism developers, and policymakers on designing and promoting transformative tourism products. It also emphasises the need for wellness-focused governance frameworks, workforce protection, and community engagement to ensure equitable and sustainable development in wellness tourism.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.wellness retreatswellness tourismcustomer perceived valuecustomer loyaltyfsQCAThesis