An overseas experience without traveling abroad. The effect of visual similarity on travel intention

ABSTRACT This study attempts to explore the impact of the visual similarity between domestic lookalike attractions (DLA) and foreign famous attractions (FFA) and the spillover effect of DLA that is, how visual similarity enhances tourists’ travel intention. This study also uses novelty categorization theory and construal level theory to explore the mediating roles of curiosity and psychological distance. The results of the two quantitative studies show that regardless of how visual similarity is communicated between DLA and FFA – by text or by picture – they both enhance tourists’ travel intention toward the DLA through the mediating effects of curiosity and psychological distance.