Consumption value in GenAI travel photography: a mixed-methods study from an affordance–constraint perspective

Abstract

Purpose This study develops an affordance–constraint–value framework to explain how GenAI travel photography shapes consumption value and behavioral intentions. It aims to examine how perceived affordances and constraints relate to functional, emotional and social value, and how these value dimensions influence continuance and sharing intentions. Design/methodology/approach A three-phase mixed-methods design was used. Phase 1 applied topic modeling to 40,543 user-generated posts. Phase 2 surveyed 485 GenAI travel photography users and tested the structural model with PLS-SEM. Phase 3 used fsQCA to identify affordance–constraint configurations associated with high consumption value. Findings Phase 1 showed that public discourse centered on enabling conditions, value evaluations and behavioral tendencies. Phase 2 indicated that trialability, aesthetic creation and self-congruence were central to value formation, and that all three value dimensions increased continuance and sharing intentions. Phase 3 showed that high-value outcomes appeared through multiple sufficient configurations, with low AI hallucination risk recurring across solutions. Originality/value This study contributes to digital tourism and destination visual marketing by conceptualizing GenAI travel photography as generated self-in-place consumption. Integrating technology affordances and constraints theory with the theory of consumption value offers a more balanced explanation of how value is created, qualified and suppressed. Methodologically, it combines big-data exploration, net-effect testing and configurational analysis to explain value formation and its behavioral consequences.