How personal and social-interactive engagement in tourism rituals can stimulate consumption: interaction with self-construal and self-congruity

Tourism rituals – structured, symbolic experiences with shared emotions – often include both personal and social-interactive forms of tourist engagement. However, their distinct effects on tourists remain insufficiently explored. This study addresses the question: How do different types of tourist ritual engagement influence tourists' willingness to spend more, and how are these effects moderated by individual characteristics such as self-construal and self-congruity? Moreover, this study examined the mediating roles of self-enhancement and social identification. Four scenario-based experiments suggest that personal engagement can amplify self-enhancement and subsequently boost the willingness of tourists with independent self-construal or high self-congruity to spend more. Conversely, social-interactive engagement enhances social identification, increasing willingness to spend more for tourists with interdependent self-construal or low self-congruity. This study enriches the understanding of ritual engagement by uncovering its psychological mechanisms and offers practical guidance for tailoring ritual experiences to enhance tourist spending.