Inspiring differentiated imaginative process in tourists: Sensory experiences and advertising language congruency effect

Sensory cues have been increasingly applied to tourism advertising marketing. However, when and how to use the five sensory experiences to enhance advertising effectiveness remains unclear. Drawing on construal level theory and mental simulation theory, this study investigates how the interaction between sensory experiences (proximal vs. distal) and advertising language (concrete vs. abstract) influences the effectiveness of online tourism advertising. Through a pilot study, three online experiments, and a field experiment with actual liking behavior measurements, we confirmed the effectiveness of online tourism advertising depends largely on the match between sensory experiences and advertising language. Specifically, proximal sensory experiences with concrete language descriptions could elicit the vividness of mental simulation, whereas distal sensory experiences with abstract language descriptions could elicit metaphor of mental simulation; both approaches enhance the persuasive effect of tourism advertising. These results offer new perspectives on tourism sensory marketing and have important implications for enhancing the effectiveness of advertisements.