Inspiring tourists’ imagination: How and when human presence in photographs enhances travel mental simulation and destination attractiveness
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Date
2025
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Elservier
Abstract
Due to the intangible nature of tourism products, successful destination marketing depends on whether visual
materials can evoke tourists’ vivid fantasies of their future travel experiences. Our research sheds light on an
effective visual cue (i.e. human presence) that can be easily manipulated in destination photographs to facilitate
such mental simulation processes. Across three experimental studies with cross-cultural subjects, we found that
the presence of a person in photos significantly prompted tourists to imagine their future travel experiences in
the depicted travel scenes, thereby enhancing the perceived destination attractiveness. However, this favorable
effect is mitigated when the photo features an urban (vs. natural) landscape and when the person’s face is clearly
shown. These findings provide new insights into the theoretical understanding of tourist mental simulation
activation and human presence perception, with critical implications for effective destination photo marketing.
Description
Tourism Management 106 (2025) 104969
Keywords
Human presence,Destination photograph,Mental simulation,Perceived destination attractiveness,Natural and urban landscape,Tourist imagination