The influence mechanism of travel livestreaming's (TLS) characteristics on users' tourism well-being

An emerging new format, travel livestreaming (TLS), has recently elicited increasing academic attention. However, previous studies have only discussed the marketing value of TLS and overlooked its virtual tourism value. The present study analyzed 365 valid data through PLS-SEM and found that user's experience in TLS could generate a sense of virtual tourism well-being. Specifically: (1) users' immersion, authentic, and thinking experiences positively affect their sense of tourism well-being in TLS; (2) virtual travel satisfaction plays an incomplete mediating role in the impact of immersion (positive mediating), authentic (positive mediating) and thinking experiences (negative mediating) on tourism well-being; (3) individual innovation preference weakens the positive impact of immersion, authentic and thinking experiences on virtual travel satisfaction; and (4) individual innovation preference plays a negative moderating role in the influence of virtual travel satisfaction on tourism well-being. These research findings have significance for developing virtual tourism with emerging media technology and for the protection of scenic spots.