Tourist scams, moral emotions and behaviors: impacts on moral emotions, dissatisfaction, revisit intention and negative word of mouth

Purpose Drawing upon affective events theory (AET), this study aims to explore the relationship between tourists’ perceived deception and moral emotions, dissatisfaction, revisit intention and negative word of mouth. Design/methodology/approach Online data from Questionnaire Star were used to examine the proposed research model. A total of 437 valid questionnaires were collected. Findings The results suggest that tourist scams as “affective events” could trigger tourists’ moral emotions and dissatisfaction, thereby decreasing their revisit intention and generating negative word of mouth. Additionally, moral emotions were found to act as a mediator between perceived deception and dissatisfaction. Research limitations/implications The insights uncovered in this study reveal the mechanisms behind tourists’ reactions to scams and provide implications for tourism destinations, suggesting ways to alleviate the adverse impact of tourist scams. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the very first study to investigate tourists’ reactions to tourist scams.