Museums play an important role in shaping the cultural image of local intangible cultural heritage and developing the cultural tourism industry. Using the SOR theoretical model, this study examines the influencing factors of tourist participation behaviour through different approaches such as theoretical deduction, empirical methods, and path analysis. The results indicate that the participation behaviour of visitors in the special exhibition of intangible cultural heritage is a subjective construction guided by perception and experience, and is influenced by objective factors such as behavioral psychology, cultural scenes, and social exchange. Its mechanism of action depends on visitors' interactive narrative situational cognition of the special exhibition of intangible cultural heritage. Tourist participation behaviouris the result of the combined action of internal driving and external factors, which is a subjective choice guided by perception and experience, as well as objective influencing processes such as environment, situation, and context. The cultural environment plays a regulatory role in this process, jointly influencing tourist participation behaviour. By deepening the theoretical construction of tourist participation behaviour in special exhibitions of intangible cultural heritage, we aim to further enrich research on the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage.