How does tourism memory affect revisit decisions? The mediating role of episodic future thinking

Abstract

Although scholars have explored how memorable tourism experiences affect tourists' behaviour, little research has considered the role of tourism memory from an autobiographical memory phenomenology perspective—particularly negative tourism memories. By combining the notion of mental time travel with the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, this research proposes a theoretical framework describing the effects of positive and negative tourism memories on revisit intention through episodic future thinking. A questionnaire survey and two experiments jointly revealed that tourists' revisit intentions were stronger when memories of previous visits were positive. Episodic future thinking partly mediated the association between tourism memory valence and revisit intention. Moreover, positive external information could strengthen the effect of episodic future thinking on this intention. Results offer practical guidance on harnessing tourism memory to improve destinations' competitiveness.