Strategies that resonate: the role of advertising content strategies and future time perspective in shaping travel intention among older wellness tourists

This study adopts the Stimulus – Organism – Response framework to examine how the interaction between advertising content strategies (ACS) and future time perspective (FTP) influences older tourists’ travel intention in wellness tourism. Grounded in socioemotional selectivity theory and advertising typology, two scenario-based experiments were conducted to reveal a significant matching effect: transformational ACS are more persuasive for tourists with limited FTP, while informational ACS work better for those with open FTP. This effect is partially mediated by perceived hedonic and utilitarian value and further moderated by the advertising source. The contextually congruent combinations of ACS, FTP, perceived value, and advertising source can trigger distinct psychological pathway mechanisms and enhance older tourists’ travel intention, offering strategic guidance for targeting older tourists through precision marketing in wellness tourism.