Promotional messages, including scarcity messages and other consumer existence messages, are frequently employed by online travel marketers to drive consumer purchase intention. By using a scenario-based experimental design study, the authors investigate the effects of scarcity message types – limited quantity scarcity (LQS) and limited time scarcity (LTS) – on willingness to purchase, and explore the mediating role of perceived consumer competition and the moderating role of social cue messages on scarcity messaging and purchase intention. The findings suggest that presenting social cue messages enhances perceived consumer competition and consequently purchase intention when an LQS message is presented. However, presenting social cue messages have no such impact on perceived consumer competition and purchase intention when an LTS message is presented. This research provides online travel practitioners with guidance on how and when to leverage promotional messages to drive consumer purchase intention.

促销消息，包括稀缺消息和其他消费者存在消息，经常被在线旅行营销人员用来驱动消费者的购买意愿。通过使用基于场景的实验设计研究，作者研究了稀缺消息类型（有限数量稀缺（LQS）和有限时间稀缺（LTS））对购买意愿的影响，并探讨了感知到的消费者竞争和消费者竞争的中介作用。调节社交提示消息在稀缺消息传递和购买意愿方面的作用。该发现表明，当呈现LQS消息时，呈现社交提示消息可增强感知到的消费者竞争，从而增强购买意向。然而，当呈现LTS消息时，呈现社交提示消息不会对感知到的消费者竞争和购买意愿产生任何影响。这项研究为在线旅行从业人员提供了有关如何以及何时利用促销信息来推动消费者购买意愿的指导。