Author Identifier (ORCID)
Sam Huang: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4990-2788
Abstract
As tourism short videos have become central to destination marketing, camera zoom motion stands out as a simple yet powerful tool. However, theory-driven guidance on when and how to deploy zoom effects remains limited. Drawing on construal level theory, this research examines how zoom motions (zoom-in vs. zoom-out) interact with visual content to affect tourists’ responses. Five main studies across eastern and western cultures demonstrate significant interaction effects between zoom motion and visual content. Specifically, for activity-centric content, zoom-in motion enhances persuasiveness by eliciting objective mental imagery; for site-centric content, zoom-out motion proves more effective, as it evokes feelings-based mental imagery. These findings enrich the theoretical discourse on destination visual marketing and provide actionable recommendations for destination marketing organizations and content creators to optimize the persuasive impact of tourism short videos.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
6-1-2026
Volume
114
Publication Title
Tourism Management
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Business and Law
RAS ID
84632
Funders
National Natural Science Foundation of China (72572177, 72202061) / Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2024JJ3034) / Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Hunan Province (24ZDAJ021) / Education Department of Hunan Province (24A0032)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Authors Accepted Manuscript version of an article published by Elsevier in Tourism Management. The published version is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2025.105358
Su, L., Yang, Y., Huang, S., & He, X. (2025). Dynamism by design: The zoom effects in short video tourism marketing. Tourism Management, 114, 105358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2025.105358