Understanding how tourists develop commitment toward heritage destinations requires approaches that capture configurational and asymmetric causality. Traditional linear models overlook the interplay among experiential, cognitive, and identity-based drivers of behavioral outcomes. This study applies fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to uncover multiple sufficient pathways leading to high tourist commitment in cultural heritage tourism. Data collected from 150 visitors to heritage sites in Hanoi were calibrated into fuzzy sets, producing parsimonious, intermediate, and complex solutions. The results reveal equifinal pathways in which strong tourism media influence and identity congruence frequently act as core conditions, while perceived heritage value and cultural experience operate as complementary mechanisms. Notably, commitment can emerge even when certain factors such as social cognition or heritage value are absent, underscoring the compensatory dynamics among causal conditions. This study advances theoretical understanding by conceptualizing tourist commitment through a fuzzy-mathematical lens and demonstrates the explanatory power of configurational logic over symmetric analytical assumptions. Practical implications are proposed for destination managers to tailor strategies to distinct commitment-driving configurations.
