How does tour guide humor influence tourist citizenship behavior?

Existing research increasingly examines the effects of tour guide humor on tourist responses, but fails to address those on tourist citizenship behavior (TCB). Accordingly, this study develops a conceptual model to explore the influence of tour guide humor on TCB through tourist delight (an affective factor), perceived service quality (a cognitive factor), and attachment to tour guides (a relational factor). Structural equation modelling technique is employed to analyze the survey data collected from 366 tourists in different tour groups in China. Findings indicate that tour guide humor positively influences tourist delight, perceived service quality, and attachment to tour guides, which in turn positively predicts TCB. In addition, the mediating roles of the three factors in the tour guide humor–TCB relationship are empirically supported. The first contribution of this study lies in the pioneering attempt to link tour guide humor and tourists' extra-role behaviors (e.g., TCB), and the second one is that the affective, cognitive, and relational factors are organically integrated as mediators to depict the influence mechanisms of the above linkage. Finally, useful suggestions for how to effectively promote TCB are provided.