Journal of Travel Research

Machine learning techniques have gained increasing prominence in tourism and hospitality research for data analysis and business strategy formulation. This study systematically reviews 406 peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2023, highlighting the growth of machine learning studies, the expansion of academic journal coverage, and the adoption of diverse data modalities employed in this field. More importantly, it discusses emerging research topics and associated machine learning approaches across different data modalities (i.e., numerical, textual, and image data). This study further addresses key issues and challenges in current applications and outlines future research directions in this domain. Overall, it offers an in-depth understanding and assessment of the current machine learning techniques within the tourism and hospitality literature.

This study explores how factor endowment, digital transformation, and institutional quality influence high-quality tourism economic development through the lens of endogenous growth theory. Using data from 30 Chinese provinces (2010–2019), it applies panel regression and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify key drivers. Findings reveal three distinct pathways to high-quality tourism economic development, with digital transformation emerging as a universal driver, even in regions with weak institutional support. Challenging conventional institutional perspectives, we demonstrate that institutional quality’s impact is not uniformly positive but context-dependent. Strong digital capabilities or abundant resources can effectively compensate for institutional weaknesses. The study extends endogenous growth theory to tourism and offers valuable guidance for policymakers to optimize resource allocation, accelerate digital transformation, strengthen institutional frameworks, and promote region-specific tourism strategies while fostering regional integration to ensure sustainable and high-quality tourism economic development.

Ethical voice shapes moral values and responsible behavior, yet its impact on cultural heritage conservation remains unexplored. Grounded in the approach–avoidance system, this study investigates the differential effects of ethical voice type (promotive vs. prohibitive) on tourists’ cultural heritage conservation commitment through four sub-studies. The findings reveal that promotive (vs. prohibitive) ethical voice is more effective in encouraging tourists’ conservation commitment. Specifically, promotive ethical voice enhances tourists’ perceived responsibility, motivating their conservation commitment, whereas prohibitive ethical voice evokes perceived emotional blackmail, leading to an avoidance of conservation commitment. Moreover, the effectiveness of ethical voice is moderated by perceived scarcity. For highly scarce cultural heritage, prohibitive (vs. promotive) ethical voice is more effective. This study offers a novel perspective on cultural heritage conservation, enriches the impact framework of ethical voice, and suggests that cultural heritage sites should fully leverage the positive role of ethical voice in fostering tourists’ conservation commitment.

The existing literature has largely overlooked the effects of foreign aid on tourism demand in developing countries, and the channels through which this relationship operates. This study fills this gap by examining the direct and indirect effects of aid on tourism demand using data from 96 developing countries spanning the period 1995 to 2020. We reveal the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship where aid negatively affects tourism demand beyond a specific threshold. Our findings also suggest that institutional quality and political stability are crucial for maximizing the impact of aid, while human development and economic growth serve as key mediating channels. These results imply that to boost tourism demand, recipient countries should prioritize strengthening governance and institutional frameworks, while donors should target aid toward human development and infrastructure projects supporting the tourism sector. Focusing on these areas can help both donors and recipients reduce poverty and enhance economic resilience.

JEL Classification: F35; Z32; C23; C24.

This study examines the impact of generative AI-powered recommendations on potential tourists’ perceptions, focusing on the interplay between social presence and privacy concerns. Building upon social presence theory and privacy issues, we explore whether the positive effects of traditional human elements in travel images persist in the context of AI-generated content. We investigate how privacy concerns influence the reception of these recommendations in the age of AI. Our research employs a three-way experimental design that applies to five studies, addressing social presence, privacy concerns, and privacy justification. The findings indicate that while social presence enhances positive perceptions, privacy concerns significantly mediate this effect, potentially reversing the traditionally favorable reception of human elements in travel images. This study provides theoretical and practical insights, suggesting that Destination Marketing Organizations must strategically navigate the dual challenges of leveraging AI advancements while addressing travelers’ privacy concerns and privacy justification to optimize marketing effectiveness.

This study examines how sustainability shapes visitors’ perceived value for tourism destinations. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling and importance-performance map analysis on survey data from 639 tourists, the study analyzes the effects of four sustainability dimensions (economic, environmental, socio-cultural, institutional) on three dimensions of perceived value (epistemic, monetary, social), as well as on overall perceived value. Findings emphasize the importance of socio-cultural sustainability, which emerged as the most influential factor in enhancing all three dimensions of perceived value and overall perceived value. Institutional and economic sustainability also play significant roles. In contrast, environmental sustainability showed a limited impact. There is room for improved performance across all four dimensions of sustainability, especially environmental sustainability. Destinations should prioritize socio-cultural, institutional, and economic sustainability, while also striving to improve environmental performance and raising awareness of genuine environmental initiatives to align tourists’ expectations with sustainable practices.

We leverage anthropomorphism—attributing human-like characteristics (e.g., speech and emotions) to non-human objects (i.e., towels)—to communicate appeals from various theoretical perspectives to prompt hotel guests to reuse their towels. In survey experiments, we directly compare interventions based on competing theoretical constructs such as social norms, environmental beliefs, enjoyment, and perceived effort, with and without anthropomorphism. Results from two survey experiments show that anthropomorphizing towels made people perceive them as more human-like and experience higher levels of self-transcendent emotions (e.g., empathy) toward the towel. Anthropomorphism combined with a message about the effort of reusing a towel significantly increased hand towel reuse in a field experiment without affecting guest satisfaction. However, the effect was limited to hand towels. This cost-effective intervention can be readily implemented to enhance sustainability and reduce laundry costs. Nonetheless, stronger interventions, such as default changes, may be needed to achieve a larger impact on towel reuse overall.

Digital human avatars have been used extensively to endorse destinations. However, there is limited research on how the alignment between digital human avatars and destinations affects travel behavior. Drawing on cue consistency and cohort theories, this research employs a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design. Study 1, based on a survey of 423 Generation Y and Generation Z individuals, examines the antecedents (external and internal cues) and consequences (trust, engagement, and travel intentions) of aligning digital human avatars with destinations, including the sequential mediating roles of destination trust and engagement, as well as the moderating effect of generation. Study 2 follows with qualitative interviews of 28 participants to provide deeper insights. Findings further provide a qualitative explanation of generational differences by uncovering six boundary conditions. These findings offer practical insights for creating strategies that effectively align digital human avatars with endorsed destinations, thereby strengthening trust and engagement, and by extension, travel intentions.

Research on virtual reality (VR) tourism experiences has grown exponentially. Despite this, the cognitive mechanisms that make VR tourism experiences memorable remain underexplored. This research critically examines the cognitive processes which prolong the memorability of VR tourism experiences, utilizing an extended multi-step mixed-methods design with biosensor measures. Findings demonstrate increased physical presence enhances virtual memorable tourism experiences (vMTEs), serially mediated by visual attention and cognitive appraisals. Causal effects are stronger in VR tourism environments with lower levels of social presence. Longitudinal repeated measures analysis delineates patterns of memory decay in VR tourism, elucidating the temporal and structural dynamics of experience memorability. A conceptual model of vMTEs is developed that articulates the cognitive architecture underpinning experience memorability. Practical guidelines inform the delivery of vMTEs and the digital preservation of unique and charismatic nature, culture and heritage in virtual environments. Future research should focus on memory retention in innovative virtual tourism contexts.

Destination logos and textual content are key components of tourism promotion. However, the ways in which these two elements can be matched to create effective destination advertisements are unclear. This research classifies destination logos based on their perceptual structure (either structured or unstructured) and their textual persuasion tactics (focused on social proof, which highlights a destination’s popularity; or scarcity, which emphasizes its uniqueness). Through four scenario-based experiments, the findings reveal a congruity effect: structured logos paired with social proof tactics and unstructured logos paired with scarcity tactics both enhance visit intention. Destination trust and arousal respectively mediate these effects; individuals’ openness to experience moderates them. Practically, tourism marketers can enhance advertisements’ effectiveness by aligning promotional strategies with destination logos’ structural design. Campaigns can also be tailored based on individuals’ degrees of openness to experience.

Tourists frequently experience two types of price discrimination: algorithm- and human-led. However, research on their influence on tourist attitudes toward destinations is limited. This study conducted four experiments to compare the impact of algorithm- and human-led (by local travel agency staff) price discrimination on tourists’ attitudes toward destinations, using attribution theory and a single-factor between-subjects design with manipulation checks. The results indicated that human-led price discrimination had a more negative effect on tourist attitudes and that the main effect was mediated by trust in the residents. The moderating role of current socioeconomic status was also examined, revealing that the negative influence of human-led price discrimination on trust in residents was stronger among tourists with high socioeconomic status. This study extends existing literature on price discrimination and attribution theory. Practically, it underscores how tourist attitudes toward a destination can be affected by leveraging price discrimination by type.

The fashion evolution of intangible cultural heritage in tourist destinations is vital for promoting intangible cultural heritage inheritance and innovation. However, there is limited literature on its specific manifestations and influencing factors. This study employed a mixed research design. Study 1, taking Xunpu head-pinned flowers decoration as a study case, and following grounded analysis, found that the fashion evolution of intangible cultural heritage in tourist destinations was manifested by the pattern of “traditional ontology evolving into fashion ontology, traditional representations evolving into fashion representations, and traditional constructions evolving into fashion constructions.” Study 2, based on a scenario-based experiment, found that celebrity endorsement and high fan herd mentality significantly influenced tourists’ fashion perceptions and sharing behaviors toward intangible cultural heritage in tourist destinations. Tourists’ fashion perception mediated the relationship between celebrity endorsement and high fan herd mentality on sharing behavior. Study 3 took the Tibetan dress as a study case and verified the validity of the influence mechanism through its analysis. This research highlights the specific manifestations of intangible cultural heritage fashion evolution and the impact of celebrity and fan dynamics, enriching the literature on cultural sustainability and offering strategic guidance for intangible cultural heritage innovation.

Using the lens of congruity theory, we developed and tested an integrative framework to examine tourists’ pro-environmental behavior at eco-destinations in Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Specifically, we examine the multi-dimensional effects of tourists’ need for uniqueness, materialism, and perceived destination experience on pro-environmental behavior mediated via actual and ideal self-congruity. Using structural equation modeling, the data analysis of 325 tourists in Pakistan and 388 tourists in the UK revealed that pro-environmental behavior could be triggered by self-ensuring motives among tourists from developed countries; in contrast, self-enhancing motives have more significant potential among tourists from developing countries. Creative choice counter-conformity, the pursuit of happiness and different perceived brand experience elements are essential for triggering pro-environmental behavior; however, they also serve as drivers for establishing a match between the eco-tourism destination and its tourists. Our findings offer a novel approach to enhancing eco-tourism with substantial theoretical and managerial implications.

Although there is increasing awareness of hotels’ sustainability efforts, there are gaps in understanding both how and when green practices influence guest evaluations. To address this gap, this study applies the complexity theoretical framework and fsQCA to examine key attributes that influence guest experiences as reflected in online reviews of green hotels. In our study, emotions emerged as a critical attribute, surpassing the impact of sustainability measures. Results indicate specific combinations of hotel characteristics, such as ratings and sustainability practices as well as socio-cultural factors like collectivism and gender, drive positive and negative feedback in hotels. An intervention model for hotel managers to encourage pro-environmental behavior of guests is proposed based on their attribute grouping. Different strategies such as social norm messaging, co-creation with customers, and status signaling, will encourage guests to recognize and highlight sustainability practices in online reviews.