Generative AI Engagement and Stated Sustainable Tourism Decision Intention: The Indirect Roles of Perceived Value and Trust in AI

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping how tourists search for information and plan their trips, yet the psychological mechanisms underlying sustainability-oriented travel intentions remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on perceived value theory and trust theory, this study develops a dual-path framework linking tourists’ current engagement with GenAI for tourism purposes to their stated sustainable tourism decision intentions through perceived value and trust in AI. An anonymous online survey administered via Wenjuanxing recruited participants in China and yielded 956 complete questionnaires, of which 830 were retained after predefined quality screening. The four constructs—current GenAI engagement, functional perceived value, trust in AI, and stated sustainable decision intention—were operationalized using 14 theoretically aligned indicators. Standardized composite-score path analysis with 5000 bootstrap resamples revealed positive associations along both indirect pathways. The indirect association through trust (β = 0.113) was stronger than that through perceived value (β = 0.064), with a statistically significant bootstrap contrast (difference = 0.048, 95% CI [0.009, 0.088]). Given the cross-sectional and self-reported nature of the data, the findings are interpreted as conditional associations rather than causal effects or evidence of observed behavior. The study demonstrates that perceived functional benefits and confidence in AI-generated information are theoretically distinct yet jointly relevant to tourists’ sustainability-oriented travel decision-making.