The negative content of short travel videos can bring positive outcomes for residents: the stress-emotion-coping-behaviour model

Purpose The ever-emerging, and sometimes viral, negative short travel videos (NSTVs) may undermine the effectiveness of destination marketing and bring stress to residents. However, how residents psychologically react to and cope with these videos remains largely unknown. Drawing on stress-coping theory and the extended S-E-C-B (stress-emotion-coping-behaviour) model, this study aims to examine the impact of negative emotions, that is, embarrassment and psychological reactance, and both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies on residents’ perceptions of NSTVs and their subsequent citizenship behaviours and support for tourism. Design/methodology/approach Five short travel videos with negatively distorted content were selected to facilitate a survey. A total of 605 valid responses were collected from Macau residents after watching a randomly selected short video. Partial least squares structural equation modelling analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings The findings indicated that the residents’ perception and negative emotions (embarrassment and psychological reactance) were positively related to their adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies. Adaptive coping strategies encourage their citizenship and support for tourism. However, the proposed negative relationship between maladaptive coping strategies and residents’ behaviours was rejected. It showed a positive relationship. Originality/value This study contributes to stress-coping theory, clarifying how passive (maladaptive) coping strategies can lead to favourable outcomes in the tourism industry from the resident viewpoint. The findings also offer some guidance on how tourism authorities can develop crisis management programs to handle the case.