Co-creation experience in travel photography service: exploring the formative mechanism of repurchase intention from the perspective of script theory

This research aims to clarify the core attributes of travel photography service, and how it may be possible to cultivate tourist loyalty to this service when travelling to the next destination. A mixed method with two studies was conducted to answer these questions. Study 1 adopted semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to identify the key variables and their potential relations. The results showed that co-creation experience in travel photography was mainly composed of sense seeking, multi-actor interaction, and active participation, which played an extremely important role in tourists’ cognitive memory, service outcome evaluation, and future travel decision-making. To further verify the relationship between variables, study 2 used a survey to explore the formative mechanism and boundary conditions of the co-creation experience on tourist repurchase intention. The results indicated the co-creation experience was positively associated with repurchase intention. Memory recollection and photo satisfaction both mediated this relationship. Inertia positively moderated the relationships between co-creation experience, memory recollection and photo satisfaction on repurchase intention. These effects were stronger when individual inertia was high. This study also provides practical insights into how it may be possible to cultivate travel service loyalty in destination marketing.