Emotion in the Service of Regeneration: How Storytelling Transforms Tourism Behaviors

Abstract

This research examines the role of positive emotional storytelling as a lever of influence on the intention to adopt regenerative tourism behaviors. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of experiential marketing and narrative persuasion, the study comparatively analyzes the impact of an emotional narrative (generating positive emotions such as hope and pride) and a factual narrative on tourists’ behavioral intentions.
An online experiment was conducted with potential tourists, randomly assigned to one of the two narrative conditions. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results show that emotional storytelling exerts a significant total effect on regenerative intention (β = 0.44, p < 0.001), unlike the factual narrative. The analysis also reveals a partial mediation effect of character identification (β indirect = 0.18, p < 0.01), as well as a positive moderating effect of perceived authenticity (β = 0.15, p < 0.05). These results underscore that the adoption of regenerative tourism behaviors relies on an integrated experiential dynamic, combining emotion, identification, and authenticity. This research contributes to the literature on sustainable tourism marketing by proposing an explanatory framework highlighting the transformative potential of emotional storytelling to encourage regenerative tourism practices.