When city landmarks meet AI design: the impact of AI painting on the travel intentions of consumers

Tourism destinations are increasingly using Generative AI to enhance images of city landmarks for promotional purposes. This study develops a model based on schema theory and tests it through four experiments to explore the impact mechanism of AI painting on travel intentions. Results reveal that, compared to original images, city landmark images enhanced by AI painting notably increase tourism intentions of consumers, with fantasy serving as a mediating factor in this relationship. However, when the source of the image enhancement is explicitly disclosed, the positive effect of AI painting on tourism intentions diminishes, and the mediating effect of fantasy becomes nonsignificant. Additionally, the study shows that AI painting is more effective in boosting tourism intentions for hedonic destinations than for utilitarian ones. Moreover, individual belief factors indicate that AI-enhanced landmark images are more effective in boosting travel intentions among consumers with low informedness compared to those who are highly informed.