IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v112y2025ics0160738325000611.html

Learning from museums: Resource scarcity in museum interpretations and sustainable consumption intention

Author

Listed:
  • Xue, Xin
  • Li, Yaoqi
  • Liu, Sijia
  • Liu, Mengya

Abstract

Resource consumption poses challenges to sustainable tourism development. Museums, crucial for fostering social virtues, hold untapped potential for public education on resource conservation. Through five experiments integrating scenario-based experiments, field experiments, and eye-tracking techniques, this research demonstrates that historical resource scarcity, particularly conveyed through museum interpretations, enhances tourists' sustainable consumption intentions. Eye-tracking evidence from real visitors in a museum highlights increased narrative engagement as the key underlying mechanism. Notably, the effect of interpreting historical resource scarcity depends on tourists' time orientation: future-oriented tourists are receptive to the educational impact of interpretations, while present-oriented tourists show diminished responsiveness. These findings significantly advance ecotourism literature by demonstrating how museum interpretations can serve as effective and engaging educational tools, encouraging tourists' sustainable practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Xue, Xin & Li, Yaoqi & Liu, Sijia & Liu, Mengya, 2025. "Learning from museums: Resource scarcity in museum interpretations and sustainable consumption intention," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:112:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325000611
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2025.103955
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738325000611
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2025.103955?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antón, Carmen & Camarero, Carmen & Garrido, María-José, 2018. "A journey through the museum: Visit factors that prevent or further visitor satiation," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 48-61.
    2. Li, Yaoqi & Liu, Biqiang & Xie, Lishan, 2022. "Celebrity endorsement in international destination marketing: Evidence from eye-tracking techniques and laboratory experiments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 553-566.
    3. Li, Shanshi & Huang, Huiling & Liu, Xinyu & Chen, Zhenyu, 2024. "The power of visuals in destination advertising," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Kelly Goldsmith & Caroline Roux & Anne V. Wilson, 2020. "Can Thoughts of Having Less Ever Promote Prosocial Preferences? The Relationship between Scarcity, Construal Level, and Sustainable Product Adoption," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 70-82.
    5. Packer, Jan & Ballantyne, Roy & Uzzell, David, 2019. "Interpreting war heritage: Impacts of Anzac museum and battlefield visits on Australians' understanding of national identity," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 105-116.
    6. Essl, Andrea & Hauser, David & von Bieberstein, Frauke, 2024. "Let's think about the future: The effect of positive and negative future primes on pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    7. Tom van Laer & Ko de Ruyter & Luca M. Visconti & Martin Wetzels, 2014. "The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers' Narrative Transportation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(5), pages 797-817.
    8. Kavvouris, Christos & Chrysochou, Polymeros & Thøgersen, John, 2020. "“Be Careful What You Say”: The role of psychological reactance on the impact of pro-environmental normative appeals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 257-265.
    9. Kimberly C. Doell & Marc G. Berman & Gregory N. Bratman & Brian Knutson & Simone Kühn & Claus Lamm & Sabine Pahl & Nik Sawe & Jay J. Bavel & Mathew P. White & Tobias Brosch, 2023. "Leveraging neuroscience for climate change research," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(12), pages 1288-1297, December.
    10. Elke U. Weber, 2017. "Breaking cognitive barriers to a sustainable future," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(1), pages 1-2, January.
    11. Li, ShiNa & Chark, Robin & Bastiaansen, Marcel & Wood, Emma, 2023. "A review of research into neuroscience in tourism: Launching the annals of tourism research curated collection on neuroscience in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    12. Jacobs, Maarten H. & Harms, Michel, 2014. "Influence of interpretation on conservation intentions of whale tourists," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 123-131.
    13. Li, Yuan (William) & Wan, Lisa C. & Luo, Xiaoyan & Wu, Chuanlong, 2023. "If museum treasures could talk: How anthropomorphism increases favorable visitor responses," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Dimache, Alexandru & Wondirad, Amare & Agyeiwaah, Elizabeth, 2017. "One museum, two stories: Place identity at the Hong Kong Museum of History," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 287-301.
    15. Juvan, Emil & Dolnicar, Sara, 2014. "The attitude–behaviour gap in sustainable tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 76-95.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. A. R. Shaheen Hosany & Rebecca W. Hamilton, 2023. "Family responses to resource scarcity," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 1351-1381, November.
    2. Xiaohong Wu & Ivan Ka Wai Lai & Haohang Yang, 2026. "In a GenAI-generated text message context, how to enhance tourists’ visit intention through dynamic and multisensory cues in the destination visual narrative," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Viglia, Giampaolo & Dolnicar, Sara, 2020. "A review of experiments in tourism and hospitality," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Alessia Acampora & Michele Preziosi & Maria Claudia Lucchetti & Roberto Merli, 2022. "The Role of Hotel Environmental Communication and Guests’ Environmental Concern in Determining Guests’ Behavioral Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Filby, Nicole E. & Stockin, Karen A. & Scarpaci, Carol, 2015. "Social science as a vehicle to improve dolphin-swim tour operation compliance?," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 40-47.
    6. Kui Yi & Yingqi Wu & Yiying Liu & Ziqi Xu, 2024. "Immersive Empathy in Digital Music Listening: Ideas and Sustainable Paths for Developing Auditory Experiences in Museums," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, May.
    7. Siow‐Kian Tan & Siow‐Hooi Tan, 2023. "A creative place‐making framework – Story‐creation for a sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 3673-3691, October.
    8. Shiwei Shen & Marios Sotiriadis & Qing Zhou, 2020. "Could Smart Tourists Be Sustainable and Responsible as Well? The Contribution of Social Networking Sites to Improving Their Sustainable and Responsible Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, February.
    9. Sahil Singh Jasrotia & Manoj Kumar Kamila & Vinod Kumar Patel, 2023. "Impact of Sustainable Tourism on Tourist’s Satisfaction: Evidence from India," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 11(2), pages 173-189, May.
    10. Siqi Emily Lu & Brent Moyle & Sacha Reid & Elaine Yang & Biqiang Liu, 2023. "Technology and museum visitor experiences: a four stage model of evolution," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 151-174, June.
    11. Berthold, Anne & Cologna, Viktoria & Siegrist, Michael, 2022. "The influence of scarcity perception on people's pro-environmental behavior and their readiness to accept new sustainable technologies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    12. Pipatpong Fakfare & Walanchalee Wattanacharoensil, 2023. "Low‐carbon tourism for island destinations: A crucial alternative for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 180-197, February.
    13. Wei-Ta Fang & Ching-Yu Lien & Yueh-Wen Huang & Guosheng Han & Guey-Shin Shyu & Jui-Yu Chou & Eric Ng, 2018. "Environmental Literacy on Ecotourism: A Study on Student Knowledge, Attitude, and Behavioral Intentions in China and Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    14. Dessart, Laurence & Pitardi, Valentina, 2019. "How stories generate consumer engagement: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 183-195.
    15. Cao, Xinyue & Qu, Zhirui & Liu, Yan & Hu, JiaJing, 2021. "How the destination short video affects the customers' attitude: The role of narrative transportation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    16. Roger Gans, 2025. "I Guess You Twisted My Arm: Effects of Elaboration, Reactance and Politics on Responses to Covid-19 Vaccination Advocacy Messages," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    17. Martin Thomas Falk & Eva Hagsten, 2023. "Reverse adoption of information and communication technology among organisers of academic conferences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1963-1985, March.
    18. Bahadır Ayar & Huriye Şebnem Burnaz, 2025. "The nexus of scarcity and donation: exploring the interplay of construal of resources, well-being, trust, and efficacy in nonprofit fundraising," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 22(2), pages 373-411, June.
    19. Antioco, Michael & Coussement, Kristof & Fletcher-Chen, Chavi Chi-Yun & Prange, Christiane, 2023. "What's in a word? Adopting a linguistic-style analysis of western MNCs’ global press releases," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(2).
    20. Lin, Guyang & Li, Mimi & Xing, Yuqing & Guo, Fumei & Lin, Pearl M.C., 2023. "The contagion effect on children's consumption decision," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:112:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325000611. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.