Stop unsafe behaviors at Internet celebrity spots: Matching strategies of warning message appeals and background colors in tourism safety communication

The spread of social media has transformed some previously undeveloped “wilderness areas” into Internet celebrity spots, thereby intensifying tourism risks. This trend highlights an urgent managerial question: how can tourists' behavior be effectively guided through safety communication in emerging high-risk destinations? However, existing research has paid limited attention to how textual cues and visual colors of warning messages affect tourists' safety responses. To address this gap, this study draws on cognitive-affective system theory to examine the interaction effects between warning message appeals (emotional vs. rational) and background colors (red vs. blue) on tourists' safety behavior. Three online scenario-based experiments were conducted to test the proposed relationships. The results demonstrate that emotional appeals paired with red backgrounds and rational appeals aligned with blue backgrounds, respectively, enhance tourists' safety behavior through threatened awe and self-efficacy. Moreover, other tourists' behavior further moderates these matching effects. This research extends the theoretical boundaries of cognitive-affective system theory within destination safety communication and offers actionable insights for optimizing warning message design to promote tourists’ safety behavior.