How do temporal psychological distance and grandiose narcissism affect tourists’ travel motivation and attraction visit intention?

Purpose

Literature has paid limited attention to narcissism’s influence on tourism. The pre-trip planning stage involves temporal psychological distance, where decision-making regarding the trip stretches over a period of time and occurs anytime during that period. Using narcissism theory and with temporal distance (6 months and 1 week before the trip) as the moderator, this study examines how tourists’ self-sacrificing self-enhancement and grandiose fantasy – grandiose narcissism facets – and travel motivations affect attraction visit intentions.

Design/methodology/approach

Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was applied on survey information obtained from 374 individuals (200 and 174 were six-months and one-week scenarios, respectively).

Findings

Grandiose narcissism facets affect motivations and visit intentions to various attractions at different temporal distances. The consequences of grandiose fantasy and self-sacrificing self-enhancement on motivation become evident as temporal distance decreases. At large temporal distances, grandiose fantasy positively influences social recognition motivation. At short temporal distances, it positively influences social recognition and ego and negatively influences scenery and relaxation motivations. Self-sacrificing self-enhancement positively influences socialization, exploration, scenery, relaxation and escape motivations at large temporal distances. At short temporal distances, self-sacrificing self-enhancement positively influences historical attraction visit intentions.

Originality/value

Grandiose narcissism facets’ influence on tourism is rarely examined. This study extends the temporal distance concept to the narcissism theory. It integrates the effects of grandiose narcissism and temporal distance on tourists’ motivations and different attraction type visit intentions and shows that motivation is temporally distance-specific.