Is the refund policy a Panacea? The effect of destinations' refund policy on tourist scams governance

Purpose Governing tourist scams through refund policy represents an innovative institutional practice in destination marketing. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Yunnan Province's refund policy in addressing tourist scams, identifies its limitations and examines the underlying causes. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a theoretical-revision process tracing approach. First, it develops an integrative framework to explain how institutional marketing generates three differentiated effects. Second, it analyzes how the refund policy influences tourism destination merchants' behaviors under ideal conditions. Third, drawing on user-generated content from two leading Chinese social media platforms, the study examines how refund policy affects tourism scams in the real-world context of Yunnan Province, thereby providing empirical support for the proposed mechanisms. Findings The findings show that under conditions of perfect implementation, refund policy can effectively curb tourist scams in Yunnan Province and similar contexts. However, during implementation, a latent process – termed institutional marketing drift – emerges and undermines scam governance. This drift generates tourist dissatisfaction and facilitates new forms of tourism scams. The primary mechanism operates through operational rule ambiguity, which blurs the boundary conditions of the refund policy. Practical implications This study clarifies how refund policy mitigates tourist scams and when such governance erodes, offering transferable insights for destination managers and policymakers. Originality/value This study conceptualizes marketing institutional drift, develops an integrative framework to explain institutional marketing effects, and illustrates its formation mechanisms and impacts through a case analysis, thereby advancing institutional marketing theory.