Tourism and hospitality service providers have been seeking ways to engage customers into the value creation process to deliver personalized customer experience. Rapid development of information communication technology has facilitated such practice by providing various computer-based or mobile platforms. While online platforms such as social network sites and online communities have received most research attention, mobile instant messaging (IM) remains under-researched in spite of its unique potential for firm-customer interaction and communication. Based on service-dominant logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004) and computer-mediated communication theories (Walther, 1996), this study examines (1) the factors influencing customers’ perceived co-creation experience facilitated by mobile IM, and (2) customers’ perceived value of personalization results from such experience in the tourism and hospitality context. Data was collected via online survey targeting Chinese users and was analyzed using structural equation modelling. The results found significant positive effects of users’ perceived social presence, perceived media richness and prior experiences on their co-creation experience. The significant positive relationships between customers’ co-creation experience and perceived personalization of the service offering validate the unique potential of mobile IM to engage customers into value co-creation with tourism and hospitality service providers. The findings extend the theoretical framework of value cocreation to a context mediated by mobile IM. Managerial suggestions are provided for tourism and hospitality companies to engage with customers using mobile IM.

Customer online engagement is crucial to online travel websites which depend online reviews to attract new users and maintain current ones. The distinctive features of public attractions in tourism and the unique webdesign of TripAdvisor create an empirical environment for this study to explore the influence of customer experience and satisfaction on their engagement in posting reviews regarding public goods. Based on a sample of TripAdvisor-listed attractions and considering the information from over 37,000 online reviews, the empirical findings suggest that (1) customer online engagement is stronger (weaker) on paid (public) attractions, and (2) the positive effect of satisfaction on customer engagement in posting reviews is more evident among public attractions rather than paid attractions. This study concludes by offering managerial implications to regulators of public attractions, operators of travel websites, and managers of paid attractions.