The emergence of advanced visual technology has led to widespread use of 360˚ virtual tours (VTs) by attractions, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. However, limited studies focused on investigating users’ behavioral intentions to continue using 360˚ VTs, especially comparing different browsing modes and interface designs. This study aims to build a conceptual model based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and flow state theory to explore the psychological mechanism influencing users’ behavioral intentions. A laboratory experiment was conducted with 115 participants, who explored 360˚ VTs of two attractions under different browsing modes and interface designs. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews. The partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the quantitative data, while qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our results revealed that users’ behavioral intentions to continue using 360˚ VTs were positively influenced by hedonic pursuits, flow state (concentration and curiosity), perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use. The psychological mechanism underlying the 360˚ VT experience varied depending on the browsing mode. Further, we identify that effective flow state attainment relies not on high-density sensory or informational inputs, but on purposefully combined interface elements, including spatial anchors and customizable content delivery. These insights contribute to the theoretical understanding of non-immersive virtual experiences while offering actionable guidance for tourism technology design.

This study explores how individual and collective value are dynamically created within independent travel groups (ITGs) in Lijiang, China. Drawing on field research and grounded in Service-Dominant logic, social practice theory, and Pre-Qin Confucian philosophy, we identify two interwoven value creation pathways: “ We value co-creation” and “ I value creation.” Conceptualized as micro-ecosystems, ITGs are examined through a four-element practice framework comprising autonomy-connection meaning orientations, dual-layer competences, hybrid service systems, and multi-level institutions, which explains how autonomy and group cohesion are continually negotiated within travel groups. The hybrid service systems function as “the third smart companion,” facilitating value realization and group coordination. Culturally, the Pre-Qin Confucian principle “harmony without uniformity” offers a lens to reinterpret co-creation beyond the collectivism–individualism dichotomy. This research advances theoretical understanding of group travel and offers actionable insights for destination governance, service design, and digital mediation in tourism contexts.

The hospitality industry has taken several initiatives to implement environmental management practices to minimize its adverse environmental impact. Nevertheless, travelers often harbor skepticism and hold unfavorable perceptions toward green communication efforts, particularly when such messages are seen as insincere or misleading. This study explores how travelers perceive green hotel communication, aiming to help hoteliers craft credible messages that build trust. Based on five focus groups with 33 participants, this qualitative study applies thematic analysis guided by signaling and attribution theories. The analysis reveals three key themes shaping travelers perceptions of green hotel communication: perceived greenwashing, attribution of ulterior motives and advancing green knowledge. The first two themes reflect the skepticism travelers express when encountering cost-driven motives or promotional overstatements. In contrast, the third theme, advancing green knowledge, emerged as a crucial mitigating factor, emphasizing the importance of guest awareness of green program, green education, and credible certification in fostering trust and message credibility. Theoretically, this study integrates signaling and attribution theories to provide a holistic explanation of how travelers perceive the credibility of green messages, introducing “advancing green knowledge” as a new mechanism that reduces skepticism and enhances trust. Practically, it offers guidance for hotel managers and marketers to strengthen message transparency and credibility by incorporating educational content, demonstrating verifiable environmental actions, and strategically communicating credible certifications across guest touchpoints.

Compared to traditional media, national parks increasingly rely on social media for information dissemination and knowledge popularization. Little research has explored the impact and mechanism of short video narratives on user engagement behavior in national parks. This paper collects 545 official short videos of national parks and classifies the video data using a combination of video processing technology and manual coding. It aims to explore the narrative elements of national parks and analyze their impact on user engagement behaviors by combining narrative transportation theory and elaboration likelihood model (ELM). The results of the study show that the narrative topic of the video has a significant effect on users’ liking and commenting behavior. The number of hashtags has a positive impact on user engagement behaviors, and narrative duration positively affects user liking and commenting behaviors. Compared to without background music, background music can increase users’ commenting behavior. This study expands the scope of theoretical research on promotion and marketing in national parks, as well as user engagement behavior and provides new perspectives on narrative transportation theory and the ELM. It also provides practical guidance for promoting and popularizing national parks.

While existing research underscores the role of social media in promoting destination gastronomy and attracting food tourists, studies on destination live-streaming remain limited. Grounded in process virtualization theory, this study employs a mixed-methods approach to examine how viewers’ engagement with local gastronomy through destination live-streaming influences their gastronomy travel intentions. A qualitative study identifies five key characteristics of the virtualization mechanism: food visual appeal, food auditory imagery, social interaction, synchronicity, and source credibility. A subsequent quantitative study reveals that these characteristics positively influence process virtualizability, which in turn, enhances gastronomy travel intention. Destination gastronomy uniqueness moderates the relationship between process virtualizability and gastronomy travel intention. This study contributes to the growing literature on destination live-streaming and provides practical insights for live-streamers, live-streaming platforms, and destination marketers.

Virtual influencers (VIs) have rapidly emerged as a compelling force in social media marketing. In the tourism context, this paper highlights the importance of virtual tourism destination ambassadors (VTDAs), which are different from VIs in control, core attributes, and long-term value orientation. Integrating technology mindfulness with technology affordance, this study aims to understand how characteristics of VTDAs, as their technology affordances, affect the potential tourists’ social media engagement and visit intention. Under the mixed methods approach, the first qualitative phase, conducted via semistructured interviews, confirms the necessity of VTDAs for destination promotion in the pretravel stage and explores five multidimensional technology affordances: customization, authenticity, interactivity, entertainment, and informativeness. Then, the quantitative phase tests the structural relationships and unveils that the multifaceted affordances of VTDAs, except interactivity, positively affect technology mindfulness, which further affects two different levels of social media engagement and visit intention. The Importance–Performance Map Analysis further reveals customization and authenticity as the prioritization of crucial characteristics of VTDAs. This study is the first to adopt and highlight the importance of VTDAs representing tourist destinations with both qualitative and quantitative evidence. Besides, this study confirms technology mindfulness in the context of VTDAs and integrates it with technology affordance to explain the mechanism behind social media engagement. This study provides practical implications for destination marketing organizations and stakeholders with insightful strategies for implementing VTDAs on social media.

Real-scene travel live streaming (TLS) has increasingly become an effective tool for fostering social connection and stimulating destination desire, particularly appealing to individuals with compensatory social needs. By enabling real-time interaction between viewers and streamers, TLS creates a psychologically supportive virtual environment that mitigates stress and fosters emotional connection through self-empowerment, reflection, and social interaction, thereby enriching the tourism experience and enhancing destination desire. However, most existing studies focus on external stimuli that influence viewers’ destination desire, such as TLS platform features, attributes, and servicescape elements, while viewers’ compensatory psychology and streamer characteristics remain underexplored. Accordingly, the present study, based on viewers’ practical needs, applies parasocial relationship theory to examine viewers’ social compensatory personality traits (social anxiety, shyness, and vulnerable narcissism) and streamer characteristics (authenticity, affability, and knowledge spillover) on destination desire. Using 653 valid responses, structural equation modeling results indicate that both personality traits and streamer characteristics significantly predict parasocial relationship formation, which subsequently enhances emotional well-being and strengthens destination desire. This study broadens the research perspective on real-scene TLS and offers valuable insights for tourism practitioners, multi-channel network agencies, and destination marketers.

With the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content (AIGC) in tourism marketing, this research explores the effectiveness of AIGC and its underlying mechanisms. Through a multimethod approach that includes a preliminary study analyzing online reviews of travel influencers’ posts, followed by three experimental studies, we find that when potential tourists are informed that the content of a travel destination is generated by AI (vs. human), their travel intentions decrease. Grounded in the human uniqueness theory, the underlying mechanism is that AIGC disclosure reduces tourists’ perceived originality of the content, which in turn lowers the likelihood of savoring the upcoming tourism experience. In addition, AI algorithm adaptivity serves as a boundary condition. When participants are informed that AI has a high-adaptivity (vs. low-adaptivity) algorithm, the adverse effects of AIGC can be mitigated. These findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of AIGC's impact on tourists’ behavior and offer managerial insights for influencers, technology managers, and industry leaders in the tourism domain.

The significant role of visual framing in crisis communication has been increasingly emphasized. Although the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, crisis communication during that period remains an extreme but typical case of citizen-to-citizen crisis communication. Thus, in our study, using citizen-to-citizen communication about Shanghai Disneyland as a case, we analyzed the role of visuals in such communication through the lens of collaborative positive psychology. In particular, following a phenomenon-based theorizing approach, we sought to elucidate the positive transformation of individuals’ psychology due to visuals during the crisis. Results indicate a dynamic process through which the negative event transformed into a positive one due to collective sense-making mediated by visuals. Results also reveal that negative emotions partly drove the positive transformation toward emotional solidarity. In this article, we discuss potential ethical issues behind visual communication despite the identified positive outcomes and highlight theoretical and practical implications for the era of visual culture.

This study examines the influence of social media on regional destination brand identity, addressing post-COVID-19 challenges for regional destinations through the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) theory framework. We conducted two studies: a qualitative analysis of 2325 social media user-generated content posts using Leximancer, and a quantitative survey of 1239 potential tourists using structural equation modelling (SEM) with AMOS. The qualitative study identified distinctive brand associations for the regional tourism destination, which informed Study 2. The quantitative study demonstrated that electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on social media has a positive influence on perceptions of regional tourism destination brand identity, affecting tourists’ intentions to visit and recommend that destination. This study highlights the role of social media in reinforcing regional destination brand distinctiveness, emphasising the importance of information consumption and information sharing on social media by tourists. Further, it addresses a literature gap on regional tourism brand identity formation. It offers practical insights for brand managers and practitioners seeking to establish strong regional tourism brands through social media.