PurposeTourism development can reduce the economic disadvantages of indigenous tribes; however, it is also reproached for the destruction of local culture. The challenge for tourism and culture is to reach those diverse audiences through a multicultural marketing perspective for managers to make decisions. Therefore, learning the activity preferences of tourism experiences and creating the value of indigenous tourism by strategies are essential indicators of this research.Design/methodology/approachThe knowledge lacks cultural understanding and the acceptance of prices concerned with indigenous tourism. This research introduces the value of cultural experience into indigenous tourism experiences and establishes a link between the attributes of tourists' preferences and tourism. The data mining methods are used to analyze relevant indigenous tribal data on the cultural experience.FindingsBy providing a different quality of service for various tourists, it is expected to improve the sustainable tourism of the tribe through the experiential value of different attributes and strategies of push–pull factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe experiential activities are based on second-hand data collected from Taitung's indigenous tourism activities, and sample data are the domestic tourism experiences of tourists over the past year. Through empirical analyses, the attributes of tourists' preferences can create the value of the cultural experience for indigenous tourism.Originality/valueThis research explores how indigenous cultural experience can be communicated via learning the value of cultural experience to formulate effective strategies.