Traveling to a Gendered Destination: A Goal-Framed Advertising Perspective

This study aims to investigate how goal-framed advertising messages paired with destination gender can influence travel decisions. A 2 (goal-framed messages: gain vs. loss) x 2 (destination gender: masculine vs. feminine) between-subjects experiment is conducted with an online consumer panel. Analysis of variance results indicate that gain-framed messages (vs. loss-framed messages) offer a greater advantage in triggering travel intentions toward masculine destinations. This relationship is mediated by processing fluency and gender identity congruity. When a masculine (vs. feminine) tourism destination is portrayed by gain-framed (vs. loss-framed) messages, consumers experience higher processing fluency and perceive greater congruence of gender identity, causing them to be more willing to travel. Findings suggest a matching effect of goal-framed marketing strategy and destination gender. Discussions and implications for destination managers are also presented.