HARNESSING ROMANCE: The effect of exposure to romance-themed attractions on tourists’ impulsive buying

Storytelling is considered an effective way to promote a tourist attraction. Developing a strong theme for stories is beneficial to the persuasiveness of storytelling. In the current research, we explore the effect of a pervasive but understudied theme of storytelling in tourism practice—romance—on tourists' propensity to engage in impulsive buying. In three experimental studies and an implicit association test (a pilot study), we show that exposure to romance-themed tourist attractions spontaneously activates a lay belief in tourists’ minds that “romance is uncontrollable,” and this lay belief elicits a perception of inability to exercise personal control, which leads to an increased propensity for impulsive buying. This effect is mitigated when the color red is salient in themed materials. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for the design and promotion of tourist attractions.