Narrative storytelling, a cornerstone of narrative persuasion theory, plays a crucial role in nurturing robust consumer-brand relationships. Understanding persuasive narratives within the social ...media domain is critical for destination brands. Hence, this study investigates the impact of realistic narratives on attitudinal destination brand loyalty, mediated by self-congruence and brand attachment across two experiments. Study 1 provides evidence for the superiority of adventure-themed realistic fictional narratives over fantasy one in Facebook advertisements. Study 2 supports the findings of Study 1 with a romantic-themed narrative and a diverse destination in Instagram advertisements. Moreover, Study 2 reveals that consumer fantasy proneness diminishes the influence of realistic fictional narratives on self-congruence. These findings suggest a strategic shift toward realistic narratives over fantasy ones to stimulate self-congruence and cultivate destination brand attachment, ultimately fortifying the bonds between travellers and destination brands.
Building emotional destination attachment is a key tourism destination branding issue in today's tourism market. The current study aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model for ...destination branding that borrows the concepts of brand credibility, brand image, brand attachment, and satisfaction. Based on the above concepts, this article hypothesizes the relationships among four constructs, namely, destination source credibility, destination image, and destination attachment as antecedents of destination satisfaction. These relationships are examined for a sample of 398 international tourists visiting a famous world heritage tourism destination (Angkor Wat) and a famous skyscraper (Taipei 101). The SEM indicates that destination source credibility and destination image could indeed affect tourist perceptions of destination satisfaction with regard to destination attachment. In addition, the mediating role of destination attachment and destination image is also confirmed in this study. The findings offer important implications for tourism management and practice.
The SEM indicates that destination source credibility and destination image could indeed affect tourist perceptions of destination satisfaction with regard to destination attachment. The mediating role of destination attachment and destination image is also confirmed in this study. Display omitted
► We develop a model to assess the tourism destination branding. ► We borrow the concepts of brand credibility, image, attachment, and satisfaction. ► We test the effects of destination credibility, image, and attachment on satisfaction. ► We test the mediating roles of destination attachment and destination image. ► The results of SEM indicate that all relationships are confirmed in this study.
Brand identification enhances customer loyalty and develops long-term relationships between the customer and the brand. However, only a few studies have explored the role of identification in ...building long-term and favorable relationships between tourists and a tourism destination. In this study, we propose and empirically verify destination personality congruence and destination trust as the drivers of destination brand identification, and destination advocacy and destination loyalty as its outcomes. For assessing these proposed relationships, a sample of 342 respondents was collected from foreign tourists visiting Dharamsala, which is a famous tourist destination among visitors in northern India. The results of structural equation modeling reveal that destination personality congruence significantly influences the destination loyalty through destination brand identification. In addition, destination trust emerges as a significant predictor for both destination advocacy and destination loyalty. The study offers important implications for both acadmecians and practitioners.
Destination branding has emerged as a critical tool for achieving competitive advantage through various conceptualizations, focusing on various aspects of branding. This research examines the role of ...destination brand experience (DBE), a new conceptualization, in assessing the holistic and unified view of tourism destinations. The conceptual model proposed in this research has been validated using structural equation modeling, based on the primary responses collected from 312 and 262 foreign visitors for study 1 and study 2 respectively, conducted at two different tourism destinations in India. Findings of both the studies suggest that various dimensions of DBE have a varied influence on destination brand identification (DBI), which subsequently affects both tourists' trust and loyalty toward tourism destinations. In addition, DBI emerges as an important mediator for the relationship between DBE and destination trust (DT) as well as DBE and destination loyalty (DL). The study provides several implications for destination marketers about building trust and loyalty among tourists using DBE and DBI.
In current conceptualizations of destination management, destination management organizations (DMOs) are required to act as network managers. Previous research claims that DMOs capable of actively ...fostering collaboration between destination stakeholders are key to ensuring a destination's competitiveness. Yet, empirical investigations concerning the role of DMO success in establishing the competitiveness of destinations are rare. Even less is known about determinants of DMO success. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to better understand DMO and destination success by investigating the role played by networking capability. One key insight is that the effect of networking capability works through increased DMO authority, i.e. enhanced power and acceptance of the DMO within the destination network. Besides the advances in terms of content, our research also offers a relevant methodological contribution by introducing a recently developed approach in mediation analysis, which has so far received little attention in the tourism literature.
•We analyze determinants of DMO success and establish a link with destination success.•We examine the role played by networking capability in detail.•Networking capability indirectly affects DMO success via increased DMO authority.•We apply an innovative approach in mediation analysis.
•This study examines the factors influencing tourists’ destination loyalty formation.•Familiarity has a significant positive impact on destination image formation.•Destination image significantly ...affects satisfaction which in turn leads to loyalty.•Perceived value significantly affects satisfaction which is an antecedent to loyalty.
The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated model to examine the antecedents to Chinese domestic tourists’ destination loyalty. Chinese tourists are rapidly gaining attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their enormous economic implications; however, this is still a largely understudied group in tourism and hospitality literature. Data were collected from tourists to Hainan Island, China and analyzed utilizing a structural equation modeling approach. Findings of this study revealed that destination familiarity, destination image, perceived value, and tourist satisfaction all influenced Chinese domestic tourists’ destination loyalty. Implications for Hainan tourism marketers and managers were discussed.
Following the Reasonable Person Model, this study examines the effects of destination fascination on subjective well-being and destination attachment as well as looking at the subsequent outcome of ...destination loyalty. A total of 936 responses were collected from tourists to national parks (302), forest recreational areas (300), and theme parks (334). The results of this study prove the effect of destination fascination on improving subjective well-being and destination attachment and shows the effects of subjective well-being and destination attachment on enhancing destination loyalty. Subjective well-being and destination attachment fully mediated effects from destination fascination to destination loyalty. Moreover, extensive validity of the proposed model was verified by engaging different destination types. The findings of this study enrich the base of knowledge about destination fascination in the tourism academy and contributes practical implications for destination management and marketing.
•We propose a methodology to develop OD matrices using mobile phone Call Detail Records (CDR) and limited traffic counts.•The methodology is demonstrated using real data and supported by validation ...results.•The approach is more economic than the traditional approaches of OD estimation.
In this research, we propose a methodology to develop OD matrices using mobile phone Call Detail Records (CDR) and limited traffic counts. CDR, which consist of time stamped tower locations with caller IDs, are analyzed first and trips occurring within certain time windows are used to generate tower-to-tower transient OD matrices for different time periods. These are then associated with corresponding nodes of the traffic network and converted to node-to-node transient OD matrices. The actual OD matrices are derived by scaling up these node-to-node transient OD matrices. An optimization based approach, in conjunction with a microscopic traffic simulation platform, is used to determine the scaling factors that result best matches with the observed traffic counts. The methodology is demonstrated using CDR from 2.87 million users of Dhaka, Bangladesh over a month and traffic counts from 13 key locations over 3days of that month. The applicability of the methodology is supported by a validation study.
Destinations ‘talk’ about themselves via online media to build strong brand personalities. However, previous research points to the influence of other associations linked to the destination in ...determining the credibility of the aforementioned personality. This research aims to identify the potential of certain types of functional associations ―attractions― in strengthening projected personality through discourse. With this aim in mind, we analyze the content of twelve official European urban destination websites. The results expand on previous research by identifying how different aspects of what a destination has to offer help portray personality traits. There is huge potential to use attractions to better project desired personality traits, which leads to a better fit between the personality and the overall projected image. The findings have significant implications both for brand managers to enable them to optimize their communication, and for future research. The projected personality of destinations should not be studied independently from the functional dimension of brand image.
•Official destination websites contribute to the projected personality through the content of both brands and attractions.•Projected brand personality is not an isolated type of association; it is conditioned by functional associations.•Different information about attractions promotes different personality traits.•Information related to gastronomy, shopping, accommodation, and heritage is richer in personality-related vocabulary.•Using the appropriate vocabulary in the content of attractions is useful to better project the desired personality.
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