• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2020

Recently, as the income level of consumers increases, interest in tourism products has increased, competition among tourist destinations has been fierce. Storytelling ads are drawing attracting attention as one of the ways to establish differentiated positioning for tourism products. This study investigates the role of the involvement of tourism activity in the storytelling ads effects, and examines the effects of the attitude toward storytelling ads on tourist destination commitments, visit intention and SNS WOM (word-of-mouth) intention. This study also empirically tests the role of mental simulation in the relationship between storytelling ads attitudes and visit intention. A total of 255 usable responses were obtained from a sample of 270 consumers aged 18 or older in South Korea. Following the two-stage approach of model validation, measurement validity of each construct appearing in the structural model and hypothesized structural paths were tested. The findings show that all hypotheses are supported except H3 that posits the impact of attitude toward the storytelling ads on visit intention and mental simulation showed a moderate effect on the relationship between ads attitude and visit intention in the case of rational appeal. This study suggests that the production of storytelling ads of tourist destinations can be effective strategy to improve regional competitiveness and increase visit and SNS WOM intention.