Effective destination user-generated advertising: Matching effect between goal framing and self-esteem

This study examines how the relationship between self-esteem (both trait self-esteem and state self-esteem) and goal-framing messages can affect individuals’ visit intentions on the basis of user-generated advertising. An analysis of variance revealed that the visit intentions of participants with low (vs. high) self-esteem were more influenced by loss-framing (vs. gain-framing) messages; meanwhile, gain-framing (vs. loss-framing) messages resulted in stronger destination visit intentions among participants with high (vs. low) self-esteem. This reasearch also investigated the successive mediating roles of emotional arousal (EA) and attitude towards a destination in the above mechanism. When individuals with high (vs. low) self-esteem were exposed to gain-framing (vs. loss-framing) messages, they exhibited stronger EA, thus inspiring more enthusiastic destination attitudes and stronger destination visit intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications for destination managers and website designers are provided.