Rural tourism product promotion: a comparison of message framing techniques

ABSTRACT

Drawing on construal level theory, this study aims to examine the effects of construal level (high vs. low) and benefit type (self-benefit vs. other-benefit) on tourists’ purchase intention regarding main (package tour) and supporting (homestay) rural tourism products. Utilizing a mixed between-/within-group methodology with a 2 × 2 scenario-based experimental design, the analysis of 352 survey responses revealed that a message describing self-benefit with low construal outperformed other messages in two temporal scenarios (long vs. short distance). These results enrich our understanding of rural tourism promotion, laying theoretical foundations for future studies and providing practical implications for the tourism industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural tourism
• tourism product promotion
• main tourism product
• supporting tourism product
• message framing
• construal level theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.