Role of Social Media in Branding Tourism Destinations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: A Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

E-commerce has spurred digital tourism entrepreneurship. Digital tourism companies must create unique and shareable destination brands to attract customers. Scholars advocated increasing brand perceptions as value enhancers to increase destination brand equity (DBE) which has been previously overlooked in research. This study examines digital tourism entrepreneurship's digital media marketing. This study shows how companies' marketing communications boost the destination's brand and less-studied traits like digital tourism entrepreneurial trust. This study employed a quantitative or deductive method to map communicative and branding features that decrease tourist visits since previous work covers integrated marketing communication and brand equity. The study employed deductive hypotheses in a quantitative quasi-experimental research design. An online survey was conducted with 497 participants who were international travellers. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) results indicated a significant relationship between destination brand equity and visitor intention. Our study highlights the significance of social and digital media in promoting tourism through digital tourism entrepreneurs in Pakistan's lesser-known areas.