How does tour guide humor influence tourist citizenship behavior?

Existing research increasingly examines the effects of tour guide humor on tourist responses, but fails to address those on tourist citizenship behavior (TCB). Accordingly, this study develops a conceptual model to explore the influence of tour guide humor on TCB through tourist delight (an affective factor), perceived service quality (a cognitive factor), and attachment to tour guides (a relational factor). Structural equation modelling technique is employed to analyze the survey data collected from 366 tourists in different tour groups in China. Findings indicate that tour guide humor positively influences tourist delight, perceived service quality, and attachment to tour guides, which in turn positively predicts TCB. In addition, the mediating roles of the three factors in the tour guide humor-TCB relationship are empirically supported. The first contribution of this study lies in the pioneering attempt to link tour guide humor and tourists' extra-role behaviors (e.g., TCB), and the second one is that the affective, cognitive, and relational factors are organically integrated as mediators to depict the influence mechanisms of the above linkage. Finally, useful suggestions for how to effectively promote TCB are provided.

Automated summary

This study examines the influence of tour guide humor on tourist citizenship behavior (TCB) through tourist delight, perceived service quality, and attachment to tour guides. The findings suggest that tour guide humor positively influences these three factors, which in turn positively predict TCB. The study makes a contribution by linking tour guide humor to tourists' extra-role behaviors and by using affective, cognitive, and relational factors as mediators to depict the influence mechanisms.