The impact of uncertainty on tourists’ controllability, mood state and the persuasiveness of message framing in the pandemic era

Drawing on uncertainty theory, this study examines how to boost travel intention by analyzing the impacts of uncertainty on the effectiveness of destination marketing messages. Three studies (including four scenario-based experiments and five pretests) were employed to examine these impacts. Study 1 demonstrated that travel outcome uncertainty impacts travel intentions and revealed controllability and mood state as parallel and serial mediators. Study 2 showed that a combination of low (vs. high) uncertainty and gain (vs. loss) framing leads to higher travel intentions. The results further show that in the temporal distance condition, the effect of message framing is attenuated. Study 3 revealed that a combination of low (vs. high) uncertainty and hedonic (vs. utilitarian) attributes increased travel intentions. The research also provides practical implications for global tourism marketers to lower the uncertainty barrier. •Examining the impacts of uncertainty on travel intention.•Revealing controllability and mood state as parallel and serial mediators.•Revealing impacts of uncertainty on persuasiveness of gain (vs. loss) framed marketing message in the pandemic era.•Recognizing temporal distance as the boundary condition of gain (vs. loss) framing effects.•Revealing impacts of uncertainty on persuasiveness of benefit claims (hedonic vs. utilitarian attribute) in the pandemic era.