How do travel experience sharing type, tourism activity type, and temporal distance shape online viewers’ travel intentions? An application of construal level theory

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of travel experience sharing for tourists and marketers, whether and how different types of such sharing influence online viewers’ travel intentions are unclear. Drawing on construal level theory, this research found that the match (vs. mismatch) between travel experience sharing type and tourism activity type induced stronger travel intention. Results further revealed two mediating paths (cognitive fluency and pleasure) behind this matching effect. Additionally, this research identified an additive positive effect evoked by the construal fit between travel experience sharing type and tourism activity type and that between travel experience sharing type and temporal distance.

KEYWORDS:

• Travel experience sharing type
• tourism activity type
• temporal distance
• travel intention
• cognitive fluency
• pleasure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 72262012 and No. 71962006] and the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 722RC633, No. 723MS024, and No. 722RC638].