Travel gone viral: Exploring the intersection of influencer marketing, overtourism, and consumers’ eco-consciousness

Travel influencers can contribute to overtourism, leading to environmental degradation. This research explores how influencers’ ecological discourse and alignment with consumers’ eco-consciousness impact fear of missing out (FOMO), joy of missing out (JOMO), and visit intentions of overtouristed travel destinations. A qualitative pretest, based on 27 interviews, explored the role of influencer marketing on intentions to visit such destinations and observed influencers’ three content orientation approaches (i.e. encouraging, responsible, and dissuasive). The findings identified FOMO and JOMO as central mediating concepts, with differing impacts on low versus high eco-conscious travelers. Study 1, an experiment, revealed that dissuasive discourse reduced FOMO and visit intentions of overtouristed destinations but increased JOMO. Study 2 further observed that personal (vs social) FOMO was reduced when ecological alignment was low, while promotional content consistently increased both, exacerbating the visit of overtouristed places. Interestingly, responsible messages, despite good intentions, can amplify FOMO for eco-aligned consumers, underscoring the complexity of effective discourse. Study 3 showed that dissuasion reduced FOMO and visit intentions for distant destinations when influencers were perceived as more ecological than consumers but was less effective for nearby locations. These findings highlight the nuanced role of influencers in shaping sustainable tourism behaviors and stress the importance of aligning influencer strategies with ecological values to address travel intentions to overtouristed destinations.