When endings mark new beginnings: How marketing using subjectively framed temporal landmarks shapes tourists’ willingness to participate in tourism activities

Abstract

People have increasingly traveled around important temporal points, and the influence of temporal landmark types on behavioral decisions has received scholarly attention. However, the appropriate use of temporal landmark types across tourism activity types remains underexplored. Therefore, one online field experiment and four scenario experiments were conducted to explore the interactive effect of temporal landmark types and tourism activity types on tourists' willingness to participate. The findings show that when relaxing (challenging) tourism activity advertisements emphasize the end-of-work (start-of-vacation) temporal landmark, willingness to participate increases. Perceived deservingness (motivation to self-improve) mediates this effect, and mystery in the advertisement moderates it. Based on the conservation of resources theory and the self-improvement theory, our study reveals how temporal landmarks and tourism activity types interact, extends the theory's application, clarifies the boundary conditions for mystery's effectiveness, and offers practical insights for tourism marketing.