When to apologise? The effect of temporal landmarks on tourists’ willingness to forgive in destination reputation crises

In the context of highly developed social media, tourist destinations frequently face reputation crises that undermine tourists’ trust and revisit willingness. Existing studies have mostly focused on the content of crisis repair statements, while overlooking the critical timing of ‘when to apologize’. Our research addresses this issue by revealing how the temporal landmarks (beginning vs. end) of tourists reading repair statements affects their willingness to forgive. Through four experiments, results show that ego depletion is lower at the beginning (vs. end) time, making tourists more likely to forgive when statements are read at the beginning (vs. end) time. Spatial distance moderates the effect: when tourists are far away from the destination, temporal landmarks significantly influence forgiveness, but when close, the effect is not significant. This research enriches the perspective of researching tourism reputation management and provides practical guidance for destinations to choose the time to release crisis repair statements.