The destructive power of money and vanity in deviant tourist behavior

Deviant tourist behavior is an important issue in tourism management. However, the academic understanding of this phenomenon remains limited. Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power, this study explored the effects of tourists' perception of money as power, their vanity and the interaction of these two factors on deviant tourist behavior. A survey and a quasi-experiment were performed to test the hypotheses; the results revealed that tourists' perception of money as power and their vanity were positively correlated to their agreement with deviant tourist behavior and their self-reported deviant tourist activity. Vanity had a moderate effect on the relationship between the perception of money as power and deviant tourist behavior. The research contributes to a better theoretical and practical understanding of this phenomenon.