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Digital anthropomorphism of accommodation: The influence of contextual and content-based femininity imagery of hotels on tourist satisfaction

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  • Li, Hui
  • Chu, Chenjin

Abstract

This paper establishes the theory of accommodation anthropomorphism by differentiating the contextual and content-based elements of digital hotel imagery on customer satisfaction. Utilizing a dataset consisting of online photos from high-star hotels, we performed expectation-confirmation data mining to analyze the emotional imagery of expected and on-site experiences. The findings indicate that: 1) Both expected imagery and onsite experiences of femininity in accommodation content increases satisfaction; conversely, masculinity decreases it. 2) Expected context-femininity imagery of accommodation alone decreases satisfaction; however, it strengthens the impact of expected digital content-femininity of accommodation. 3) Incomplete confirmation of accommodation anthropomorphism suppresses the influence of travelers' expected femininity imagery on satisfaction. 4) Compared with hedonic tourism, contextual and content-based digital anthropomorphism enhances more utilitarian tourists' satisfaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Hui & Chu, Chenjin, 2025. "Digital anthropomorphism of accommodation: The influence of contextual and content-based femininity imagery of hotels on tourist satisfaction," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:114:y:2025:i:c:s0160738325001021
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2025.103996
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