Narrative or non-narrative? The effects of short video content structure on mental simulation and resort brand attitude

Short videos have gradually become a new channel for resorts to promote their brands on social media. This study aims to determine the effect of content structure types and background music tempos of short videos on potential tourists’ mental simulation and resort brand attitude via two studies. Study 1 used a between-group one-way (short video content structure type: narrative vs. non-narrative) experiment to test the psychological mechanism of the short video content structure type on potential tourists’ resort brand attitude through mental simulation. Study 2 was a 2 (short video content structure type: narrative vs. non-narrative) × 2 (background music tempo: fast vs. slow) between-group experiment to test the impact of short video content structure and background music. The results show that potential tourists induce stronger mental simulation and higher resort brand attitude when the structure of the resort short video is narrative. Especially when the background music of narrative short videos is slow, the effect is greater. This study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of this effect for the hospitality industry.