The development of the global tourism industry necessitates the need to understand the effect of international tourists’ cross-cultural adaptability on their post-travel evaluations and behavioural intentions. The two major research gaps are: firstly, the lack of research introducing cultural intelligence into tourism research; secondly, the lack of research investigating post-travel evaluations and behavioural intentions of international tourists from a cultural adaptation perspective. Therefore, this paper aims to understand how tourists’ cultural intelligence might influence their ways of thinking and behaving. To achieve this research objective, this study employs a quantitative method (i.e., online survey) to collect data from 614 adult Chinese outbound tourists. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) techniques are used to analyze multivariate variables. The findings confirm the significant impact of tourist cultural intelligence on tourist satisfaction, revisit intention and electronic word-of-mouth communication. This study complements existing literature on cultural intelligence and contributes to the knowledge and usefulness of cultural intelligence. The findings of this study also suggest that all parties involved in international tourism need to take into consideration tourist cultural intelligence as it influences visitors’ post-travel evaluations and behaviours, which are essential for the growth even the survival of a tourism destination.