Fandom in comic-con: Cosplay tourists? interaction and emotional solidarity

The fan experience, a fast growing sub-culture at comic conventions, has yet to be considered in tourism liter-ature. Integrating research on expectancy violations theory, social identity theory (SIT), and emotional solidarity, this study investigates how positive and negative tourist-to-tourist (T2T) interactions are influenced by cosplayer identity and lead to emotional solidarity at comic conventions. Findings indicate that cosplayer identity has a significant positive effect on their positive T2T which in turn affects their emotional solidarity, while leaving negative T2T unaffected. Furthermore, fascination as important environmental cues was found as a moderator between T2T interaction and emotional solidarity. This study offers insight on how to enhance the fan experience as a marketing tool.