How do destination social responsibility strategies affect tourists’ intention to visit? An attribution theory perspective

Destination social responsibility (DSR) initiatives have recently received increasing attention as an effective way for destinations to maintain sustainable tourism development and competitive advantages. Through the lens of attribution theory, this study divided DSR strategies into proactive and reactive approaches and explored their influences on tourists' attribution and intention to visit a destination. This study also investigated the moderating role of information sources on the relationship between DSR strategies and tourists' attribution. The results of two experiments indicated that tourists' altruism attribution and visit intention tended to be higher when a destination applied the proactive (vs. reactive) DSR strategy. Tourists who got a reactive DSR message from an internal (vs. external) information source tended to generate stronger visit intention. The findings provide important implications for destinations to adopt appropriate DSR strategies and information channels for inducing tourists’ visit intention.