How AI-Generated Messages Impact Consumer Behavior in the Tourism Industry

Despite the significant potential of AI applications in tourism marketing communication, consumers’ attitudes and behaviors towards the outputs of these applications are still a mystery. To fill this research gap, the current study examines and compares consumer engagement (CE), novelty and attitude perceptions towards tourism destinations and hotel promotional content created by ChatGPT-4o (vs. human) for social media and web pages. According to the results, ChatGPT-generated messages (GPTGMs) play a crucial role on social media compared to human-generated messages (HGMs). Moreover, based on the theory of uses and gratifications (UGT), tourists’ perception significantly varies between platforms (social media vs. web pages). This research provides insights for marketers on optimizing message design and selecting effective platforms based on consumer reactions to GPTGMs.