Emotional arousal: how artificial intelligence-generated content influences tourism decision-making

The application of generative artificial intelligence in the tourism industry is deepening and playing a key role in enhancing personalized services. However, there are still significant gaps in specific studies dealing with the subsequent impact on tourists’ actual decisions and their economic significance. Based on prospect theory and social impact theory, this study explores in depth the effects of artificial intelligence-generated content and user-generated content on tourists’ emotions and decision-making process under different goal frameworks. Through a series of two scenario-based experiments, this study confirmed previous research that gain-framing content is more effective in stimulating tourists’ emotions and facilitating travel decisions. In addition, this study further found that in the context of the use of generative artificial intelligence, the loss-framing content will obtain the emotional arousal of potential tourists and the generation of travel decisions. The research has practical implications for management, highlighting potential synergies and collaboration between human-generated and artificial intelligence-generated content in tourism. Designed to help tourism destination management organizations make informed judgments based on accurate information, artificial intelligence-based big data analytics better meet the preferences and needs of tourists.