Tourism significantly impacts China's economy, politics, and society. Official Tourism Destination Websites (OTDWs) are crucial government-sponsored platforms for tourism promotion. While traditionally, Chinese tourists exhibit respect for authority and thus trust in government-endorsed platforms, recent tourism crises involving scams and misconduct have eroded this trust. Studies show that OTDW usage lags behind commercial websites, indicating a trust deficit. This study addresses this gap by examining the impact of combining cultural values (CV) and perceived administration service power (PASP) on tourists' trust in OTDWs. Existing research lacks a comprehensive understanding of how CV and PASP contribute to OTDW trust, particularly regarding trust in OTDW services rather than tourism goods. This study aims to explore the underlying factors causing tourists' hesitancy in trusting and using OTDWs, using an empirical survey approach and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test a proposed trust model.

The study expands trust theory by integrating CV and PASP perspectives. Chinese CV characteristics are well-established, including high collectivism (COL), low power distance (LPD), high uncertainty avoidance (UA), and high context (HC). China is also considered a high-context culture where communication relies on indirect cues. Local distinctiveness (LD), particularly in food, is also identified as an important factor. The study uses Mayer's trust theory, incorporating perceived benevolence (PB) and perceived integrity (PI) to assess perceived trust in OTDWs. PASP is explored through perceived economic management power (PEMP) and perceived tourism management power (PTMP), reflecting government service ability. The literature review highlights the cultural influence on website design and content, suggesting that aligning websites with cultural values can enhance user trust and purchase intention. However, the study acknowledges the potential for conflicts between perceived benevolence and perceived integrity and the importance of balancing cultural familiarity with novelty and excitement in website design.

The study employs a quantitative research design using a survey administered to 324 Chinese tourists with experience in both offline travel and using OTDWs. Data collection spanned from May to July 2022 through various online and offline channels. The questionnaire, rigorously tested in a pilot study with 50 undergraduate students, includes sections on demographics, cultural values (CV), perceived administration service power (PASP), and trust in OTDWs. PLS-SEM was used for data analysis due to its suitability for complex models with smaller sample sizes. The methodological approach involved assessing the measurement model's reliability and validity (convergent and discriminant validity, composite reliability, average variance extracted) and testing the structural model's hypotheses using path analysis and the coefficient of determination. AMOS was used for confirmatory factor analysis, while SPSS performed descriptive statistics. The analysis adhered to established sample size requirements for PLS-SEM. Robustness tests were conducted using split samples based on gender and educational level to address potential endogeneity issues.

The study's SEM analysis yielded key insights into the relationships between CV, PASP, and trust in OTDWs. The results revealed that: 1. **Cultural Values (CV) and Trust:** Collectivism (COL), low power distance (LPD), and high context (HC) significantly and positively influenced perceived CV on OTDWs. However, uncertainty avoidance (UA) and local distinctiveness (LD) did not show a significant impact on CV or trust. 2. **Perceived Administration Service Power (PASP) and Trust:** Perceived benevolence (PB) significantly and positively influenced PASP. While PTMP showed a weak positive influence on PASP, PEMP and PI did not show significant effects on PASP. 3. **CV, PASP, and Trust:** CV had a significant positive impact on PASP. Both CV and PASP had significant and positive impacts on trust in OTDWs. The explained variance (R²) indicated that UA, HC, LD, COL, and PD explained 38.7% of CV; PEMP, PTMP, PB, and PI explained 62.3% of PASP variance; and exogenous variables explained 72.2% of Trust variance. Demographic factors (age, gender, education, internet experience) did not significantly impact trust. Specific path coefficients and t-statistics are provided in Table 7 of the original paper to show the level of statistical significance of each hypothesis.

The findings refine existing research on tourist trust, offering a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between CV, PASP, and trust in OTDWs. The results highlight the importance of a combined strategy targeting both PASP and CV enhancement. Focusing on PASP entails emphasizing PTMP and PB. While PB alone is insufficient; it needs to be complemented by PTMP to convey the government’s ability to manage resources and address issues effectively. The findings emphasize the importance of aligning website design and content with cultural values. The significant influence of COL, LPD, and HC on CV underscores the need to present information in a way that resonates with Chinese tourists’ cultural preferences. The lack of significance for LD suggests a need for further investigation into specific aspects of local distinctiveness and their interaction with cultural values. The study's findings show how the expression of PASP and CV are crucial in shaping tourist trust. Focusing on these factors can positively impact trust, even during uncertainty.

This study provides a validated OTDW trust model incorporating CV and PASP, contributing theoretically to the understanding of tourist trust formation in an online context. It offers practical implications for OTDW managers, highlighting the importance of tailoring website content and design to reflect cultural values and perceived government service capabilities. Future research could explore generalizability across diverse OTDWs, expand the sample size to better reflect the diversity of Chinese tourists, and investigate the long-term impacts of website design changes on trust. Further studies may also examine specific aspects of local distinctiveness.

The study's generalizability might be limited due to the focus on Chinese OTDWs. The sample, while statistically analyzed, may not perfectly represent the entire spectrum of Chinese tourists. Future research should address these limitations by expanding the scope geographically and demographically. Further exploration of the nuances of local distinctiveness and its role in shaping trust is also warranted. The study is based on a cross-sectional design and thus cannot establish causality.