The challenge of adjusting to new travel trends has led to a quest to find ways to motivate people to travel again and to make the industry more resilient long term. The implementation of phygital marketing as an information source seems promising. This is the first study considering phygital marketing initiatives as an approach to trigger people’s travel intentions. An online questionnaire incorporating a scenario-based 2x2 factorial designed experiment with a longitudinal prospective (2 waves) explored the impact of a technology-based peer-to-peer versus human-machine interaction phygital marketing initiatives as an innovative approach to trigger travel intentions for long-distance and short distance destinations. Study 1 (n=330) shows that the experience of using phygital initiatives not only builds trust but also encourages people to visit destinations, leading to a dynamic experience. Study 2 is currently in the field which means after all most of the pandemic related restrictions have been removed to compare to Study 1’s results. Alongside theoretical contributions, this study presents practical implications on how destinations could implement phygital marketing initiatives.

This study contributes to the limited literature on the innovative pricing method of Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) in the context of a high-value service. PWYW is a participative pricing approach that takes away all the power from the seller allowing customers to decide what price they want to pay. As such, the customer is free to set any price (even zero) and the seller has to accept it (Kim et al., 2009). Existing research on PWYW examines the impact on customers fairness perception (Haws et al., 2006), willingness to pay (Spann et al., 2004), and purchase intentions (Chandran et al., 2005). Studies also provide insights into which factors (e.g., price or value consciousness) impact on the PWYW price people pay, and on its profitability (Kim et al., 2009). PWYW is more effective than traditional pricing approaches for services that follow an economy pricing strategy (Schons et al., 2014) but not for luxury goods (Balan, 2014). A notable omission in the literature is the lack of studies that directly compare the profitability of PWYW for potential, new, and repeat customers in a high-value priced service setting. The high-value strategy is defined as positioning a high quality service sold at a medium price (Kotler et al., 2001). Another lack in literature is the use of natural experiments to examine whether groups of customers will pay different prices in comparison to traditional price setting methods. In marketing research, natural experiments have been used to examine price-quality trade-offs with the conclusion that consumers pay more for better quality (Bertini et al., 2012). Using the natural experiment of the biggest dance festival in Europe (ImPlusTanz) where different customer groups pay different prices, the study compares the applicability and profitability of the PWYW pricing method. Specifically, the minimum, maximum, and PWYW prices are compared to traditionally set prices. Results from the secondary data analysis reveal that ImPulsTanz uses a pricing structure based on demographics mainly. Survey results show that the PWYW prices differ between three natural customer groups. Repeat customers are prepared to pay the highest prices compared to new and potential customers. Despite all customers indicating they will pay for the service generally, PWYW prices paid are lower than traditional list prices from the secondary data analysis. Findings also confirm differences between customers with diverse price perception/consciousness, perceived quality and value of the services offered.