EXPRESS: How Do Tourists Define Travel Failure through the Lens of Mental Accounting

Travel promises well-being yet carries the risk of misadventures. This study examines why and how tourists label an entire trip as a "failure," shifting the focus from isolated destination attributes to holistic mental accounting evaluations of negative travel experiences. Using grounded theory and csQCA applied to primary and secondary data collected from Chinese tourists, we identify eight types of tourist mental accounts—four income‑enhancing (functional, emotional, social relationship, symbolic value) and four loss‑mitigating (monetary, time, physical, risk)—alongside three mental accounting strategies (hedonic editing, self‑actualization needs, and luck conservation mind), and categorize nine configurational pathways into five travel failure types: consumption dispute, tight budget burden, negative interaction, symbolic value gap, and unexpected event. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the determinants of travel failure and offers practical insights for tourism operators and destination managers seeking to optimize the travel experience.