Abstract: Tourists citizenship behavior is very important for tourism destinations to enhance their core competitiveness. However, there is a lack of relevant research in the context of red tourism service. In order to fill the research gap, this paper constructs a theoretical model of cultural atmosphere, self-improvement motivation, prior knowledge and tourists citizenship behavior based on the stimulus-organism-response theory. Structural equation model was applied to the empirical analysis of 454 valid questionnaire data collected in Shaoshan Scenic Spot to reveal the interaction between variables. The results show that: (1) The cultural atmosphere of red tourism destinations has a significant positive impact on self-improvement motivation. (2) Self-improvement motivation also has a significant positive impact on tourists citizenship behavior. (3) Self-improvement motivation plays a partial mediating role between material and spiritual cultural atmosphere and tourists citizenship behavior. (4) The prior knowledge of red tourism significantly negatively moderated the relationship between cultural atmosphere and self-improvement motivation, that is when tourists’ red tourism knowledge was less, the cultural atmosphere of the tourist destination had a stronger impact on selfimprovement motivation. The results of this study are of great practical significance for improving tourists citizenship behavior and promoting the sustainable development of red tourism.

Key words: cultural atmosphere, tourists citizenship behavior, self-improvement motivation, prior knowledge, stimulus-organism-response theory, Shaoshan