Psychological Well-Being in Tourism Live Streaming: A Grounded Theory

Abstract

Tourism live streaming (TLS) is an emerging integrated media and digital platform for real-time spatial–temporal synchronous interactions. This study presents a grounded theory analysis of TLS participants from Asia using interviews and facial expressions to construct and understand the relationship between TLS and psychological well-being. We found that participants’ psychological well-being consists of six dimensions: sentimental cultivation, environmental mastery, self and social identity, support of reality, inspiration and arousal, and self-transcendence. The mechanisms leading to the formation of psychological well-being are described and discussed. The study contributes to theorizing and understanding the constituents and mechanism of TLS for participants’ psychological well-being, an area that has been underexplored in the tourism literature. Practically, TLS is also regarded as an excellent means for businesses to enhance potential tourists’ perceptions and to accelerate their decision-making through image (re)construction and publicity.