Psychology of space tourism marketing, technology, and sustainable development: From a literature review to an integrative framework

Abstract

Space tourism, a niche segment of the aviation industry, has radically altered the private sector. A noticeable trend in this market has been the development of commercial space with numerous start-ups and ventures underway. Adopting a concept-driven approach, we conduct a hybrid review to sketch the emerging market areas in space tourism and provided insights into tourists' behavioral responses. Our results are supplemented by an analysis of public viewpoints on space-faring to gauge their alignment with academic views on space tourism. We also develop an integrative framework to elucidate how personality interacts with scenario to influence the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of space tourists and their responses toward space tourism. We recognize critical gaps in previous literature and propose the following recommendations to guide future research: 1) Conceptualization of travel services and tourism typology in the new space market; 2) theoretical contribution on pragmatic and semantic levels; 3) need for empirical and multi-disciplinary studies; 4) investigating the role of ethical issues on bilateral arguments toward commercialized space tourism; 5) integrating stakeholders' perspectives to maximize the socioeconomic impacts of space tourism and environmental sustainability; 6) media platforms and application of new technologies; and 7) role of scientific journals in knowledge enhancement.