Fei Hao

Purpose: This study aims to review the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) research in tourism and hospitality (T&H), tracing its shift from back-end analytical infrastructure to front-stage experiential interface. This study maps conceptual foundations, thematic dynamics and methodological patterns, with particular attention to generative AI (GenAI), and develops a future research agenda for responsible and sustainability-oriented AI innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This study conducted a longitudinal bibliometric and thematic review of 1, 851 peer-reviewed articles (1986–2025) from Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection. Following the PRISMA guidelines, VOSviewer and Gephi were used for co-occurrence and citation mapping, interpreting thematic evolution across four historical phases to inform a theory-driven research agenda. Findings: Two trajectories structure the field: AI as analytical infrastructure (optimizing forecasting and decision-making) and AI as experiential interface (facilitating generative, interactive and emotionally embedded service encounters). The field has evolved from symbolic logic and data mining to multimodal analytics, service robots and GenAI applications. The proposed agenda highlights methodological transparency, ethical and accountable AI, human–AI collaboration, employee welfare and sustainable transformation. Originality/value: This study offers a structured, theory-informed synthesis of AI research in T&H. By linking historical trajectories with emerging priorities, it helps scholars, practitioners and policymakers understand where AI creates value, where risks arise and how future T&H research can respond to the GenAI era.

Purpose: Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) travel selfies have emerged as a novel pre-trip tourism touchpoint, yet their role in shaping user responses remains underexplored. Drawing on three-phase affordance actualization theory, this study aims to examine how GenAI travel selfie affordances are associated with user engagement and visit intention. Design/methodology/approach: A three-study mixed-methods design was used, combining 32 photo-elicitation interviews, a survey of 526 users analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of affordance configurations. Findings: Three affordances were identified: visual creation, generative controllability and self-presentation. All three were positively associated with cognitive, affective and behavioral engagement, except for one nonsignificant path. User engagement was positively associated with visit intention. The fsQCA results further indicated that high engagement can be associated with multiple affordance configurations. Practical implications: GenAI travel selfies can serve as a soft, user-driven promotional touchpoint for destinations and hospitality brands. Designers and marketers could consider identity-relevant design, controllable and reliable generative functions and visually appealing outputs to encourage engagement and stimulate early-stage destination interest. Originality/value: The research is among the early empirical studies of GenAI travel selfies in tourism. It extends affordance-based research to a visual, identity-centered GenAI context and combines net-effect and configurational evidence to explain how these affordances are linked to user engagement and visit intention.

Purpose: This study develops an affordance–constraint–value framework to explain how GenAI travel photography shapes consumption value and behavioral intentions. It aims to examine how perceived affordances and constraints relate to functional, emotional and social value, and how these value dimensions influence continuance and sharing intentions. Design/methodology/approach: A three-phase mixed-methods design was used. Phase 1 applied topic modeling to 40,543 user-generated posts. Phase 2 surveyed 485 GenAI travel photography users and tested the structural model with PLS-SEM. Phase 3 used fsQCA to identify affordance–constraint configurations associated with high consumption value. Findings: Phase 1 showed that public discourse centered on enabling conditions, value evaluations and behavioral tendencies. Phase 2 indicated that trialability, aesthetic creation and self-congruence were central to value formation, and that all three value dimensions increased continuance and sharing intentions. Phase 3 showed that high-value outcomes appeared through multiple sufficient configurations, with low AI hallucination risk recurring across solutions. Originality/value: This study contributes to digital tourism and destination visual marketing by conceptualizing GenAI travel photography as generated self-in-place consumption. Integrating technology affordances and constraints theory with the theory of consumption value offers a more balanced explanation of how value is created, qualified and suppressed. Methodologically, it combines big-data exploration, net-effect testing and configurational analysis to explain value formation and its behavioral consequences.

This study examines how two cognitive responses to stress—reflective and brooding rumination—affect tour guides’ psychological flexibility and career resilience, defined as the ability to adapt positively to career challenges and maintain professional growth. Across four scenario-based experiments ( N = 962), we investigate the distinct impacts of these rumination styles under diverse stress contexts. Experiments 1 and 2 reveal that reflective rumination promotes emotion regulation and reduces emotional exhaustion, thereby enhancing psychological flexibility and resilience, while brooding rumination worsens exhaustion and undermines resilience. Experiments 3 and 4 highlight that in-group support strengthens the positive effects of reflective rumination, whereas in-group disregard amplifies brooding rumination’s detrimental impacts. Theoretical implications emphasize the role of emotion regulation as a mediating mechanism linking adaptive rumination to resilience, while, practically, findings suggest that fostering reflective thinking and supportive team dynamics could improve tour guides’ capacity to manage stress and sustain their career well-being.