Does “See It Before It’s Gone” Increase Visit Intentions? Destination Awareness in Last-Chance Tourism Appeals

Last-chance tourism (LCT) involves visiting destinations threatened by environmental change or human activity before they disappear or transform. Although vulnerability-focused media messages can raise awareness of threatened places, they may also increase visitor pressure. Using a pre-test/post-test experiment, this study examined how LCT appeals influence visit intentions for two cultural heritage sites with different awareness levels: Venice (higher awareness) and Hasankeyf (lower awareness). The results show that LCT appeals moved the last-chance motive from the lowest-ranked to the second-ranked priority in both groups, indicating motivational activation. However, this activation translated into higher general visit intention only for the lesser-known destination, while foreseeable visit intention remained unchanged for both destinations. Theoretically, the findings show that destination awareness conditions whether motivational activation converts into behavioral intention. Practically, the results suggest that vulnerability messaging should be used cautiously and, where appropriate, framed as conservation-oriented communication rather than as a simple invitation to visit.