Avoiding tourists’ cultural distortion risk perceptions: Designing appropriate cultural heritage tourism advertising content

Advertising is closely associated with tourists' awareness of local culture. Unreasonable advertising content may raise tourists’ concerns about cultural distortion, thus negatively affecting the destination image. However, how to design advertising content to mitigate tourists' cultural distortion perceptions remains unclear. Therefore, this study examines the effects of different types of advertising content (promotional vs experiential) on tourists' cultural distortion risk perceptions employing three scenario-based experiments. Findings reveal that promotional advertising content increases tourists' cultural distortion risk perceptions by inducing their perceived commercialization, while experiential advertising content mitigates it by boosting perceived essence. Tourists with low cultural heritage site familiarity are more susceptible to advertising content's influence, whereas those with high familiarity have no significant difference in cultural distortion risk perceptions. This research elucidates the mechanism by which heritage tourism advertising influences tourists' cultural distortion risk perceptions, thereby contributing to advertising strategies in cultural heritage tourism and fostering cultural sustainability. The findings also offer practical guidance for fostering positive psychological perceptions among tourists and shaping the cultural image of cultural heritage sites.