The effect of price perception on tourists’ relative deprivation and purchase intention

Price discrimination has been adopted by an increasing number of tourism attractions to maximize profit. However, the influence of price perception induced by price discrimination on tourists’ emotions and their behaviours has been largely ignored by existing literature. To fill the research gap, this study explores the effect of price perception on a tourist’s relative deprivation and purchase intention based on the relative deprivation theory. The results indicate that perceived higher prices lead to an increase in relative deprivation, which in turn, discourages tourists from purchasing tickets for tourism attractions. It follows that the reverse is true, i.e. that perceived lower prices lead to a decrease in relative deprivation, encouraging the purchase of tickets for tourism attractions. This study further reveals that high tourism attraction awareness attenuates the relative deprivation of a perceived higher price, while quantitative scarcity message increases the likelihood of the relative deprivation.