The Interactive Effect of Message Framing and Power Distance Belief on Tourists’ Attitudes Toward Slum Tours

Abstract

Slum tourism, an activity in which tourists visit impoverished areas, has grown rapidly in recent years and, in turn, triggered intense debates in the public sphere and on social media. In the current research, we examine how and why different frames regarding slum tours (i.e., poverty tour vs. cultural tour) interact with tourists’ power distance belief (PDB) to influence their attitudes toward such tours. Using three studies, we show that tourists with low (vs. high) PDB have more negative attitudes toward slum tours when they are framed as poverty tours than as cultural tours, because they perceive taking such tours as being immoral. We further demonstrate that an appeal for donations mitigates the perceived immorality among low-PDB tourists, which consequently alters their negative attitudes toward such tours. Our research offers stakeholders in slum tourism, including travel agencies and policymakers, valuable insights into operating slum tours in a more ethical way.