The digital transformation of the tourism industry influences tourists’ behavior. Grounded in dual-processing theory, this study developed a holistic framework to explain the underlying psychological mechanisms of virtual tourism. The study’s overarching objectives were to (1) examine how mental imagery processing (MIP) of sensory stimuli in virtual tourist attractions influence cognition (learning) and emotion and (2) contribute to prior research that focused on the positive effect of MIP. This study aims to explore the potential negative impacts of MIP on future behavioral intention to visit actual tourist attractions. Two rounds of surveys in China show that MIP influenced cognition and emotion, which together may affect future visitation. MIP inspired a desire to visit through learning, although it also decreased interest because of negative emotions. The current study contributes to the virtual tourism literature and MIP theory and suggests implications for the use of virtual technologies in tourism marketing.

While emotionally laden, sites of death could also be places of spiritual transformation and sacredness. In recent years, the ‘emotional’ turn in geography and tourism studies has called for more research on co-activation and the impact of mixed emotions at these places. In order to address the research gap in how negative/ambivalent emotional experiences could be negotiated, transformed, and constructed into place meaning, we report the findings from 460 questionnaires completed by visitors to one of the darkest tourism places—the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre. The obtained data were used to build a structural equation model, which aimed to examine the subtle relationship between mixed emotional experience (e.g. fear, shock, depression, appreciation) and the spiritual meaning of dark places. Findings corroborated that certain negative emotional experiences also have the potential to broaden-and-build; however, they were not able to directly broaden one’s thoughts and add meaning to life as positive emotional experiences do. Positive emotional experiences (i.e. appreciation) have a direct positive effect on spiritual meaning. In contrast, the negative emotional experience of ‘fear’ has neither a direct nor indirect impact on spiritual meaning, while sorrow, shock, and depression only indirectly create meaning through the full mediating effect of learning benefit. Our empirical results reveal how a site of death becomes meaningful from the tourist’s perspective through a particular focus on the impact of ambivalent emotional experiences in dark tourism. In this sense, the findings provide implications for maintaining attractiveness and sacredness of the darkest tourism sites as temporal distance increases.

The concept of resilience has recently received a substantial amount of attention in sustainable tourism research. Nevertheless, empirical studies on the factors that may influence the perceived resilience of community residents in tourism destinations remain lacking. A thorough analysis is needed to examine place attachment as a catalyst of or a barrier to community resilience in tourism destinations. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the influence of place attachment on perceived resilience based on data derived from 655 residents in two earthquake-affected tourism communities in Sichuan Province, China. The empirical results indicate that place identity and place dependence have a positive influence on the perceived resilience of community residents in tourism destinations. The equality test for the structural model demonstrates that the influence of place attachment on perceived community resilience is invariant across native residents and lifestyle tourism immigrants. Residents who develop strong place attachment to their communities exhibit greater resilience and adaptive capacity.

Echoing calls for further empirical research of exploring complex mechanism of dark tourism experiences, as well as following the series of studies on post-disaster recovery (Wenchuan earthquake in China), it takes an earthquake-ruined country town Beichuan as a study case to explore relationships between dark places, on-site experiences, and behavioral intentions. By using structural equation modeling, it proves that the framework of aroused memory, cognition-affection, satisfaction, and behavior intention (place protection) is an effective new approach to understand visitors’ psychological experiences in the contest of dark tourism. Most importantly, it innovatively proves in quantitative way that aroused memory (either firsthand or secondhand) is the antecedent factor that influences the on-site cognition and emotion, and past experience plays the moderating role affects both the extent and the inner relation of dark experiences between visitors who were exposed/not exposed to a specific dark event. The findings are also beneficial in guiding post-disaster site planning and management.

Purpose: Airbnb attempts to stimulate consumer imagination and expectations of home through storytelling before their stay. The purpose of this study is to gain a holistic understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which brand storytelling can evoke consumer imagination of home away from home and their choice of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations. Design/methodology/approach: By collecting 864 valid questionnaires through two rounds of surveys with Chinese consumers, this study examined the structural relations between narrative elements in the brand story (home characteristics, social interactions in advertising, advertising features), brand perception, self-image congruence and consumption intentions. Findings: The results demonstrate that home characteristics, social interactions in advertising, and advertising features positively influence people’s brand perceptions, self-image congruence and consumption intentions through mental imagery processing. Practical implications: This study offers helpful implications on how to create a home feeling in P2P accommodations and provides recommendations to promote the connection between consumers and the brand for P2P accommodation providers and hoteliers. Originality/value: This study reveals the underlying mechanism of how various narrative elements in brand stories inspire the imagination and feeling of home in consumers during the prestay phase. By analysing the impact of specific trust systems and emotional needs on the construction of a feeling of home, this study is an important complement to existing studies on the study of home in P2P accommodation.