Artificial Intelligence or Human? How Advertising Creator Types Impact Tourists’ Preferences for Relaxing Versus Challenging Destination Activities

Artificial intelligence (AI) serves as a potent instrument for marketers to create advertisements in the tourism sector. However, limited research has explored the conditions under which AI-generated advertisements may be more effective than those created by humans. On the basis of the Regulatory Focus Theory, this paper demonstrates that AI-generated advertisements are more effective in promoting relaxing tourism activities by fostering a prevention-focused mindset, whereas human-created advertisements promote challenging activities by activating a promotion-focused mindset. Three studies provided convergent evidence to support these hypotheses. Our study extends the literature on AI-generated advertising, contributes to Regulatory Focus Theory, and enriches the understanding of factors influencing tourism activity preferences, suggesting that tourist destinations should use AI-generated or human-created advertisements for specific tourism activities to enhance advertising effectiveness.