Destination marketing: creating memorable tourism experiences

Research Aims: This study investigates the role of Digital Engagement in mediating the relationship between Marketing Mix, Destination Image, and Revisit Intentions in the tourism industry. It also examines how Technology Adoption and Memorable Tourism Experiences moderate this relationship, providing a deeper understanding of the factors that enhance tourist loyalty in a digitally driven travel environment. Design/Methodology/Approach: A quantitative research design using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze survey data collected from international tourists who visited Taiwan. The study assessed the direct, indirect, and moderating effects of key tourism variables using reliability and validity tests, structural modeling, and mediation-moderation analysis. Research Findings: The results confirm that Marketing Mix and Destination Image positively influence Digital Engagement, which in turn has a significant impact on Revisit Intentions. Digital Engagement fully or partially mediates the effects of Marketing Mix and Destination Image, reinforcing the importance of online interactions, user-generated content, and social media engagement in shaping travel behavior. Additionally, Technology Adoption strengthens the effect of Digital Engagement on Revisit Intentions, while Memorable Tourism Experiences enhance this relationship, indicating that emotionally rich and technology-supported tourism experiences drive repeat visits. Theoretical Contribution/Originality: This study extends the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework by demonstrating how Digital Engagement serves as a key psychological mechanism linking external tourism stimuli to behavioral outcomes. It also introduces Technology Adoption and Memorable Tourism Experiences as moderators, offering a more nuanced understanding of how digital interactions and personal travel experiences influence long-term destination loyalty. Practitioner/Policy Implication: The findings suggest that destination marketers and tourism policymakers should invest in interactive digital strategies, smart tourism technologies, and immersive visitor experiences to encourage repeat visits. Enhancing social media campaigns, AI-driven tourism services, and user-generated content initiatives can significantly improve Digital Engagement and long-term destination loyalty. Additionally, designing culturally enriching and emotionally memorable travel experiences can further strengthen tourists' attachment to a destination. Research Limitations/Implications: This study is limited by its cross-sectional design, which restricts the ability to track changes in tourist behavior over time. Future research should adopt a longitudinal approach to examine how Digital Engagement and Revisit Intentions evolve post-travel. Additionally, while this study focuses on Taiwan's international tourism sector, future research could explore its applicability in different cultural and regional contexts to enhance generalizability.

Memorable tourism experience at smart tourism destinations: Do travelers' residential tourism clusters matter?

Hot-air ballooning is considered an activity conducted in rural areas that involves adventure and participants' interactions with the natural environment. A hot-air balloon ride is regarded as a memorable tourism experience. Memorable tourism experiences are argued to be the best predictors of future behaviours. If tourists have a positive perception of the destination country and the destination itself, they are more likely to feel that they will have a memorable tourism experience, which in turn leads to higher revisit and recommendation intentions. Empirical research investigating the antecedents and consequences of memorable tourism experiences remains insufficient. This study, leveraging the Theory of Planned Behaviour and focusing on hot-air ballooning, aims to fill this gap by proposing and testing a model that explores the relationships between country image, destination image, memorable tourism experience, revisit intention, and recommendation intention. The relationships were examined using PLS-SEM. Data were collected from foreign tourists participating in hot-air balloon tours in Cappadocia, Türkiye, one of the leading destinations for hot-air ballooning in the world (N=764). According to the regression analysis results, country image has a strong positive effect on destination image (β = 0.86, t = 71.976, p < 0.01). Additionally, the country image positively influences memorable tourism experience (β = 0.34, t = 7.018, p < 0.01). Destination image also has a positive impact on memorable tourism experience (β = 0.60, t = 12.951, p < 0.01). Furthermore, destination image mediates the effect of country image on memorable tourism experience (β = 0.52, t = 12.684, p < 0.01). Finally, a memorable tourism experience has a strong positive effect on future behavioural intentions (β = 0.89, t = 66.672, p < 0.01). It is emphasized that in destinations recognized for hot-air ballooning, such as Cappadocia, creating a positive country and destination image can enhance the likelihood of tourists revisiting and recommending the destination to others. In this context, when developing marketing strategies, the impact of the country’s image on destination image should be considered, and the focus should be on providing tourists with memorable experiences. Since convenience sampling method was used in the data collection process in this study, it is an exploratory study, and the generalizability of the results is limited.

Memorable Tourism Experience is one of the sources that are an aspect of excellence for a tourist destination or tourist attraction because a memorable experience will have a long- term impact. Good storytelling behavior and getting satisfaction that is in accordance with expectations will have an impact on tourist behavior to do branding and the intention to revisit. This study was conducted to see how much influence an impressive tourism experience has on storytelling behavior and revisit intention in Jatiluwih Tourism Village. The phenomenon that drives this study is the large number of storytelling behaviors of tourists who upload and convey information about their experiences through social media. The gap in previous studies is used as a novelty in this study to test how much influence memorable tourism experience has on revisit intention through storytelling behavior in Jatiluwih Tourism Village. The sampling technique used purposive sampling with a questionnaire distribution of 210 respondents consisting of domestic and foreign tourists. The type of research uses a quantitative approach using a Likert scale and data analysis using SmartPLS. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant direct influence between the memorable tourism experience variable on revisit intention, there is a significant direct influence between memorable tourism experience on storytelling behavior, there is a significant direct influence on storytelling behavior on revisit intention and storytelling behavior has a significant direct influence. In fully mediating an impressive tourism experience on the intention to revisit in Jatiluwih Tourism Village.

This new volume, Destination Marketing: Creating Memorable Tourism Experiences, provides a snapshot view of various aspects of destination marketing, the art of using marketing to create memorable experiences for travellers at specific destinations. The book begins with an introduction of destination marketing that discusses its origin, how it evolved into its present state, important definitions, destination marketing environments, destination value chains, consumer behavior, along with information on segmentation, targeting, and positioning for destinations. The authors cover various tourism attractors, the most common of which include heritage tourism, agro-rural tourism, natural/scenic attractions, man-made attractions, spiritual/ religious tourism, wildlife tourism, business tourism, festivals, art and culture tourism, sports and adventure tourism, wellness and medical tourism, culinary tourism, special interest tourism, and stopover tourism. The destination marketing mix is also discussed, covering the seven P’s of destination marketing. Promotional tools are included as well as destination branding methods along with various brand elements: destination names, URLs, symbols, characters, slogans, and jingles. Other chapters address destination marketing organizations (such as convention and visitor bureaus that help promote and market local attractions); performance measurement tools; the use of social media and digital marketing; tried-and-true strategies for destination marketing, such as segmenting, targeting, and positioning; the role of sustainability in destination marketing; the gap between theory and practice in destination marketing; and the future of destination marketing, with a view to advancements in technology as well as health and safety issues. This book will be valuable to faculty and students in hospitality programs as well as for researchers, tourism marketing professionals, and others interested in promoting destination tourism.

A memorable tourism experience corresponds to the memories retained in the tourist’s memory based on the individual experiences perceived during all the phases of a trip to a particular destination. Theme parks are tourist attractions designed with a thematic identity that allows visitors to escape from routine and are based on offering a different world with alternative experiences that can become unforgettable. In this context, this study aimed to analyze the influence of memorable tourism experiences from the Beto Carrero World theme park perspective in Penha-SC, Brazil. This research was conducted using data collected from 680 tourist visitors to the park, using a questionnaire comprising 27 variables that are part of the memorable tourism experience constructs: hedonism, novelty, renewal, meaning, involvement, knowledge, and social interaction. The data was analyzed based on sociodemographic characteristics and multivariate analysis using SPSS and SmartPLS software. The results made it possible to identify a new proposal for a conceptual model to evaluate the meaning of memorable experiences in theme parks and positively confirmed the influence between the memorable tourism experience and each firstorder construct, revealing that immersive hedonism and perceived meaning had the most significant impact on the memorable tourism experience in the theme park.

PurposeUtilising the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theoretical framework, this study investigated how destination attachment and overall satisfaction mediate the linkage between memorable tourism experiences and customer-based destination brand equity (CBDBE).Design/methodology/approachThe authors study presents a model that illustrates how memorable tourism experiences can influence CBDBE by impacting tourists' attachment and overall satisfaction with a destination. The model was tested using empirical data obtained through a survey of 382 Indian domestic tourists. The data were analysed using the SPSS AMOS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences Analysis of a Moment Structures) programme.FindingsThis study validates the accuracy and effectiveness of the suggested conceptual model, demonstrating significant linkage between the variables of the study. Accordingly, it was observed that positive memorable tourism experiences have a notable impact on the development of attachment and satisfaction with the tourist destination forming strong CBDBE.Practical implicationsThe study's primary managerial recommendation is that, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, destination management organisations should give priority to memorable experiences and positive emotions instead than only concentrating on product-centred marketing. Second, destination managers must mould their business models based on the link between memorable tourism experiences, destination attachment, satisfaction and CBDBE.Originality/valuePerhaps, the authors' research is one of the earliest to explore the relationship between tourists' overall satisfaction, attachment to a destination and memorable experiences and how they impact customer-based brand equity (CBBE) for a specific urban hill station destination.

FinalidadEsta investigación analizó los efectos de las experiencias de realidad virtual (VREs) y las emociones en las intenciones de visita a destinos vacacionales aplicando el modelo estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R). También examinó el papel de la fotografía amateur como moderador en la relación entre las VREs, las emociones y las intenciones de visita.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueLos datos primarios se recogieron mediante una encuesta con cuestionario estructurado administrado en la India, y se utilizó la modelización de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM) para examinar las relaciones entre las variables. La encuesta principal fue precedida de un estudio piloto. Se aplicó la técnica PLS-SEM para medir el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur.ResultadosCuando las personas poseen un alto nivel de emociones positivas en la etapa previa al viaje con participación en VRE, sus intenciones de visitar destinos son más fuertes. La fotografía amateur moderó las relaciones entre la interactividad del usuario, las experiencias memorables, las imágenes mentales y las intenciones de visita. No se encontró ningún efecto moderador significativo entre las experiencias emocionales y las intenciones de visita.Originalidad/valorEsta investigación tiene el valor de hacer varias contribuciones potenciales a las aplicaciones turísticas de la realidad virtual. Es el primer estudio que utiliza y pone a prueba el marco estímulo-organismo-respuesta (S-O-R) para analizar el comportamiento de los turistas desde la perspectiva de las emociones generadas por las aplicaciones de RV. El análisis se centra en el mercado turístico de la India, poco explorado en el contexto de la RV y desde la perspectiva de un país en desarrollo. La investigación hace hincapié en el uso de la RV como herramienta para comprender el comportamiento de los turistas, en lugar de centrarse únicamente en las intenciones de visita. Las conclusiones aportan valiosas ideas sobre la importancia de la RV en el turismo. Los conocimientos generados contribuirán a comprender el impacto de las experiencias de RV en las emociones y las intenciones de visita, así como el efecto moderador de la fotografía amateur. Se presentan implicaciones prácticas para los responsables de marketing de los destinos turísticos a la hora de desarrollar estrategias de marketing eficaces que potencien las emociones de los turistas y motiven las intenciones de visita.

ABSTRACTThere has been insufficient research on how the emotional‐ and intelligence‐related shortcomings of service robots may be compensated for to enhance the tourist experience. In this study, we explore the influence of service robots' communication style on tourists' memorable tourism experiences through three situational experiments involving different backgrounds and groups of subjects. The findings indicate that when service robots use social‐oriented (vs. task‐oriented) communication emphasizing emotional intelligence, tourists have more memorable experiences. Perceived warmth and intelligence mediate the relationship between communication style and memorable tourism experiences. At the same time, a higher level of anthropomorphism in the appearance of service robots, along with tourists' familiarity with technology, enhances the positive effects of socially oriented communication. These conclusions contribute to the literature on human–robot interaction in tourism and provide guidance for using service robots in scenic destinations.

Underpinned by Script Theory and the S-O-R model, this research enhances the green tourism consumption literature to identify how destination service quality contributes to visitors’ memorable experiences and loyalty towards a place-based food tourism attraction. A total of 202 tourists who visited the Best of Highlands tea plantation in Malaysia were surveyed using an online questionnaire. Using PLS-SEM, this study has several notable findings: (i) destination service quality factors: activities, cleanliness, language, and security emerged as predictors of memorable tourism experiences; (ii) memorable tourism experiences strongly predicted destination loyalty; and (iii) memorable tourism experiences mediate the path between destination service quality and destination loyalty. This study therefore provides new insights into both sustainable tea tourism and script theory with respect to how memories guide future decision making. These results also provide insights for tea tourism providers in designing an unforgettable destination that stimulates the tourist’s intention to revisit the destination and to communicate it to others.

The continuous interaction between overseas Chinese people and their ancestral hometowns has shaped the uniqueness of overseas Chinese cultural heritage destinations. Unlike other types of tourism destinations, cultural heritage tourism in the hometowns of overseas Chinese people can bring not only positive emotions (such as excitement, satisfaction, and happiness) to tourists but also negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and regret when they recall or imagine what themselves, their families, or predecessors went through in the past. In the current context of growing nostalgia, the relationship between mixed emotions in cultural heritage tourism in overseas Chinese towns and the attachment and retention of tourists’ memorable tourism experience to the destination and their behavioral intentions needs to be examined. The results of this study show that mixed emotions and behavioral intentions affect tourists’ memorable experience and place attachment. The mediating influence of place attachment on mixed emotions and behavioral intentions is greater than the mediating path for memorable tourism experience.

The purpose of this study is to dig deeper into the role of memorable tourism experiences in revisiting intention and recommendation intention by placing tourism satisfaction as mediation. This research involved a number of 340 tourists visiting heritage destinations in Central Java. Respondents were taken using a convenience sampling technique. The collected data was analyzed by SEM-AMOS. The results of the study show that memorable tourism experiences are proven to have a positive and significant effect on tourist satisfaction. This means that the more memorable the experience the visitor gets, the greater the satisfaction increasing the intention to return and recommendation intention. Memorable experiences also significantly affected the intention to return and recommendation intention. Memorable experience and satisfaction are very important factors for tourists to determine their choice to visit heritage tourism destinations. Therefore, tourism managers must pay attention to cultural heritage sites so that tourists have a positive and unforgettable impression in their memories. Keywords: Heritage Destination, Revisit Intention, Recommendation, Satisfaction, Memorable Tourism Experiences

This study presents the findings of an explanatory research which examines the effect of Memorable Tourism Experience (MTE) on Behavioral Intention of marine tourism travelers in West Sumatera, Indonesia. 115 qualified questionnaires were used for the analysis. The findings of this study reveals that only four factors of Memorable Tourism Experience – local culture, refreshment, meaningfullness and novelty – that affected traveller’s behavioral intentions to revisit the same destination, repractice the same tourist activities, and generate positive word-of-mouth. The research findings contribute to a better understanding of Memorable Tourism Experience factors that enhance positive behavioral intentions. The theoretical and managerial implication of the study results are discussed in detail.Keywords—tourism experience, memorable experience, memorable tourism experience, behavioral intentions

Exploring the relationship between emotions and memorable tourism experiences through narratives

Gaming and non-gaming memorable tourism experiences: How do they influence young and mature tourists’ behavioural intentions?