On-screen tourism destinations provide tourists with a mixture of reality and mass-media experience. This study builds a conceptual framework of authenticity evaluating the relationship between fantasy proneness, authenticity, and destination loyalty. It is among the first to compare perceived authenticity of dual images of a destination, both the film location and the story’s setting. Using Game of Thrones and the city of Dubrovnik as a case, it applies a mixed method of interviews followed by a main survey with both closed- and open-ended questions. The primary findings show that the relationship between authenticity of the film location (Dubrovnik) and loyalty is positive, but such relationship is insignificant for the authenticity of the story’s setting (King’s Landing). This investigation enriches our understanding of the complex assessments of authenticity and expands the theory of imagination by evaluating the effects of fantasy proneness on perceived authenticity in the context of on-screen tourism.

This study investigates the prospects of using electroencephalography (EEG) in tourism and hospitality research. It first discusses the concept and importance of EEG. Then, it systematically reviews articles that have used EEG to measure psychophysiological responses in business and management. The review mainly discusses EEG themes/theories/concepts and EEG methods and indices. Based on the review, this study analyses main challenges of applying EEG and suggests solutions to solve them. It finally proposes some future applications of EEG in tourism and hospitality. This study is one of the first to offer a better understanding of the literature, analysis methods, and theories/concepts associated with EEG, informing future EEG applications in tourism and hospitality research.

Pro-poor tourism (PPT) strategies enable the poor to benefit from tourism. This study applies economic and marketing theories in the exploration of PPT. It investigates behavioral economics in tourism by evaluating the framing effects of marketing materials on tourists’ willingness to pay for PPT products. It integrates framing and persuasion theories in the PPT domain and follows a 2 × 3 factorial between-subjects design. Strong messages alone and weak messages with positive or negative images are found to lead to greater willingness to pay. More than half of the study’s respondents were willing to pay more if certain fees went directly to the poor. Different framing effects were found between a tour focused on participation and a tour focused on capacity strategies.

During a pandemic, tourism can inflict negative social costs on communities in tourist destinations. This study examines factors affecting residents’ responses to policies to mitigate the social costs of tourism during a pandemic. Two hypothetical scenarios are analyzed. Study 1 investigates framing effects on residents’ attitudes toward the effectiveness of policy measures; study 2 explores the impact of mental accounting on residents’ willingness to pay. Findings show that residents perceive policy measures as more effective if their positive outcomes of such measures are highlighted. Also, residents are more willing to fund social cost mitigation with unearned income, such as anti-pandemic bonds, than through their salaries. This article contributes to academic debate on the efficacy of public policies in combating pandemics and extends the literature on framing and mental accounting in tourism research. Policy implications of these findings are also discussed.

What is the purpose of a tourism journal specialising in sustainability, and how does it best serve the needs of knowledge development, academia and wider society? Now that the Journal of Sustainable Tourism (JoST) is over 30 years old, and we’ve recently had a change in the editorial team, we thought it would be timely to consult with the editorial board to refresh and renew our aims and long-term outcomes, and ensure that our activities and use of resources are aligned with delivering outputs that will head us in the right direction. Editorial board members were invited to shape the ambitions and directions of the journal. We agreed that JoST aims to be a leading knowledge vehicle, theoretically rigorous yet solution-oriented, transformational journal, that contributes to solve the sustainability needs of society, with accumulated, developed, rapid and relevant knowledge that reaches beyond academia.