Mixed-methods study demonstrates that disability-inclusive destination images enhance travel intentions among social media viewers, indicating parallel cognitive and emotional drivers.
Key Points
Investigate how depicting people with disabilities in tourism destination images on social media influences viewers' travel intentions and identify the underlying psychological mechanisms.
Employed a mixed-methods design comprising a field study, semi-structured interviews, and five online experiments.
Analyzed psychological pathways grounded in warm glow theory, testing cognitive, affective, and inferential mediators.
Featuring people with disabilities in destination imagery produced a statistically significant positive effect on viewers' travel intention.
The positive relationship is driven by parallel mediating processes involving self-projection (cognitive), emotional empathy (affective), and perceived destination social responsibility (inferential) that enhance trust.