Navigating travel decisions in health crises: The interplay of message framing, regulatory focus, and perceived risk

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of promotional message framing on domestic tourists' travel intentions during a health crisis, exploring the moderating effects of regulatory focus and perceived risk. Utilizing a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design, two experiments were conducted with data collected from domestic tourists. The findings reveal that promotion-focused tourists prefer emotionally resonant gain-framed messages with lower discounts and show lower susceptibility to health risks compared to their prevention-focused counterparts. The interaction of gain-framed messages with low discount depth resulted in increased travel intentions despite the health crisis. On the other hand, prevention-focused tourists exhibited no significant change in travel intentions in response to differently framed messages. This study extends the promotional framing literature by incorporating regulatory focus and risk perception, offering practical implications for the tourism industry, particularly during a time of health crisis.