Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Vincent Tung is an Assistant Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include social marketing, tourism marketing, and consumer behaviour.

Catherine Cheung is an Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include service quality and human resources management.

Rob Law is a Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include information management and technology applications.

Abstract (150 Words)

Despite the breadth of literature on tourists’ narratives, the influence of the listener during storytelling on individuals’ travel memories has received little attention in tourism research. Interpersonal sharing with a listener could elicit a process called capitalization whereby the storyteller (re)constructs an experience to make it more memorable to the self. In light of this research gap, this study investigates how a listener could affect a storyteller’s memory of his/her travel experiences. Experiment 1 demonstrates that interpersonal sharing with a listener enhances tourists’ post-trip evaluation of positive experiences. Experiment 2 further examines how the nature of a listener’s responsiveness (i.e., specific or general responsiveness) could affect the storyteller’s memory and demonstrates that storytellers could also maximize details of negative experiences, thereby worsening their cognitive and affective images of the destination after interpersonal sharing. These findings have important managerial implications in service experiences and customer-relationship building in tourism and hospitality settings.

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Does the listener matter? How a listener affects the storyteller’s memory of a tourism experience

Despite the breadth of literature on tourists’ narratives, the influence of the listener during storytelling on individuals’ travel memories has received little attention in tourism research. Interpersonal sharing with a listener could elicit a process called capitalization whereby the storyteller (re)constructs an experience to make it more memorable to the self. In light of this research gap, this study investigates how a listener could affect a storyteller’s memory of his/her travel experiences. Experiment 1 demonstrates that interpersonal sharing with a listener enhances tourists’ post-trip evaluation of positive experiences. Experiment 2 further examines how the nature of a listener’s responsiveness (i.e., specific or general responsiveness) could affect the storyteller’s memory and demonstrates that storytellers could also maximize details of negative experiences, thereby worsening their cognitive and affective images of the destination after interpersonal sharing. These findings have important managerial implications in service experiences and customer-relationship building in tourism and hospitality settings.