Gamification in tourism and hospitality review platforms: How to RAMP up users' motivation to create content

Tourism and hospitality review platforms use gamification to motivate individuals to create user-generated content. However, the gamification-related motivational processes that drive individuals to create content on these platforms have received scant attention in the literature. This study proposes and tests a model based on the R.A.M.P. (Relatedness-Autonomy-Mastery-Purpose) framework to analyse the impact of gamification on individuals' psychological need satisfaction, motivation and intention to create user-generated content. Using data from a sample of 266 U.S.-based registered TripAdvisor reviewers, the findings showed: that interacting with gamified elements promotes psychological need satisfaction and controlled motivation; that feelings of mastery and purpose promote autonomous motivation; and that, of the two motivation types, only the autonomous has a significant impact on intention to create content on the review platform.