Role of Destination Brand Engagement in Enhancing Tourist Satisfaction and Promoting Destination Advocacy

Abstract

In recent years, destination brand engagement (DBE) has gained substantial attention from academia and practitioners and emerged as a concept of strategic importance in destination brand management. Particularly, developing an in-depth understanding of tourists’ engagement levels with the tourism attractions remains crucial in successfully executing destination management and marketing strategies. Because engagement transcends commitment and involvement, facilitating a proactive relationship between tourists and the destination. Although DBE has become a norm in the tourism industry, it suffers from conceptual consensus and rigorous measurement of its related constructs. This study addresses the apparent research gaps based on extensive review of relevant literature and tests transformative learning theory-informed DBE. Hence, proposing an integrated DBE framework, including its three key antecedents (destination authenticity, destination attachment, and destination experience) developed from both “destination-led” and “tourist-centered” perspectives, besides DBE’s associated consequences, namely, tourist satisfaction and destination advocacy. In addition, the mediating effect of tourist satisfaction between the association of DBE and destination advocacy was examined. As tourists’ satisfaction studies lack insights into DBE's direct and indirect effect. This study focused on the Indian tourism industry, specifically tourist destination, to attain its aims and objectives. A self-administered questionnaire survey was employed to capture visitors’ responses, and sample profiling was done through convenience and purposive sampling techniques. Descriptive analysis was undertaken to ensure data normality and sample appropriateness of the gathered responses. Afterward, the proposed framework was analyzed and validated through factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The findings were discussed, conforming to transformative learning theory by relating it to DBE and its modeled constructs. The results indicate that destination authenticity, attachment, and experience positively influence DBE. Moreover, destination satisfaction emerges as a mediator by supporting the positive indirect relationship between DBE and destination advocacy. Additionally, this study prioritizes the tourists’ preferences and perceptions of the destination, thereby assist destination managers in strategy formulation to ensure tourists’ high-level loyalty transcending purchases. Finally, Implications for academia and practice are suggested, which the tourism organizations may utilize to foster DBE and sustain the tourist-destination relationships.