From Generative AI to Hotel Brand Advocacy: A Proposed Research Framework

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly involved in travel planning and hotel choice, yet research has not fully explained how consumers move from evaluating an AI-generated recommendation to responding to the hotel brand being recommended. This paper develops an integrated research framework that connects GenAI-related perceptions with recommendation acceptance and hotel brand advocacy intention. The framework distinguishes two psychological routes. A motivational route links GenAI anthropomorphism with GenAI-evoked inspiration, whereas an evaluative route links recommendation credibility and relevance with trust in GenAI recommendations. Inspiration and trust are subsequently proposed to increase recommendation acceptance, which is further associated with advocacy intention toward the recommended hotel brand. The framework also proposes that lack-of-transparency anxiety weakens the positive effect of GenAI anthropomorphism on inspiration. The Stimulus - Organism - Response (S-O-R) framework provides the overall structure, while customer inspiration, affordance - actualization, fear-acquisition, and commitment - consistency perspectives explain specific relationships. Eight hypotheses are developed, together with a pathway for future empirical validation using a survey of GenAI users and partial least squares structural equation modeling. The framework extends GenAI hospitality research by connecting recommendation-level psychological responses with a downstream hotel-brand outcome.