Purpose This study applied Vuving's (2009) soft power framework of benignity, brilliance and beauty to examine how festivals in Bangkok, Thailand, function as mechanisms for translating soft power into tangible outcomes of cultural diplomacy and destination branding. This study aims to explore how festivals shape Thailand's international image and strengthen its soft power strategy within the tourism sector. Design/methodology/approach The author proposed a qualitative approach for designing the research methodology. A semi-structured interview was used to gain insights from stakeholders who have been directly involved in creating and managing festival experiences, including event organisers, tourism officials and residents. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify how festivals contribute to the dimensions of soft power. Findings The findings provide specific, empirically grounded insights into the existing phenomena of soft power strategies in Thailand. The interview data were analysed thematically, revealing six central themes that illustrate how festivals contribute to soft power dimensions: Benignity, including festivals, fosters tourists' empathy; festivals foster cultural inclusion; festivals foster respect and tolerance; brilliance, including festivals, fosters brand differentiation; festivals foster positive global perceptions and beauty, including festivals, fosters destination image. Originality/value This study provides an understanding of how festivals operate soft power through cultural showcases and aesthetic appeal by integrating Vuving's theoretical model with empirical data from Thailand's festival context. The findings also advance the interpretation of festivals as co-created participatory spaces that foster global goodwill and a national image that transcends traditional state-driven diplomacy. The findings offer practical insights for policymakers and cultural organisations to strategically use festivals as mechanisms of soft power and sustainable destination branding.

Purpose Conspicuous consumption serves as a key means of identity construction in modern society. As experiential purchases increasingly signal status, this study aims to examine conspicuous traveling and its influence on self-presentation on social media. Integrating the value-attitude-behavior and functional attitude theories, it explores how values shape conspicuous travel and tests posting frequency as a moderator between attitude functions and self-presentation behaviors. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive design was employed using an online survey of 606 young-adult respondents. Findings Materialism and conformity directly and indirectly influence online self-presentation of travel experiences, whereas hedonism and snobbism affect it only indirectly through value-expressive attitudes. Practical implications The findings offer actionable insights for destination marketers by clarifying how travelers' personal values and attitudes shape their online self-presentation and can be strategically leveraged to enhance destination branding. Originality/value This study enhances understanding of online conspicuous consumption through travel as self-expression. It offers a novel quantitative integration of the value-attitude-behavior and functional attitude theories in the context of experiential purchases.

In today’s global challenges, sustainability is no longer a choice but a necessity. Particularly in destination branding, sustainability is a core value that significantly influences tourist choices and shapes the image of destinations worldwide. Therefore, destinations require sustainable branding that meets travellers' expectations, enhances the destination’s image and reputation, preserves cultural heritage, protects natural beauty, fosters economic growth, promotes sustainable use of resources, and minimizes climate change and environmental degradation. However, the literature on destination branding lacks a comprehensive conceptual framework for sustainable destination branding. Hence, developing a conceptual framework for sustainable destination branding is essential to provide theoretical and practical contributions. This review aimed at filling a gap in literature by mapping how sustainability is integrated in destination branding by developing a sustainable destination branding conceptual framework. The study proposes a conceptual framework for sustainable destination branding by systematically analyzing and synthesizing insights from 62 peer-reviewed journal articles indexed in the Scopus database. These articles are confined to journal articles published in English discussing sustainable destination branding topic s. The evaluation of articles involves assessing the quality and eligibility of the articles through specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. The study highlights environmental, social, economic, and geopolitical dimensions as key considerations for sustainable destination branding. The study's findings also underscore the significance of sustainability in strengthening sustainable destination branding. While contributing to the existing body of literature, the paper provides a valuable conceptual and theoretical framework for the advancement of sustainable destination branding. Moreover, this review helps to guide future research and inform policy makers, destination marketers, and tourism stakeholders in developing sustainably-driven destination branding.

Destination brand management has been widely explored in the scientific literature; however, the development of graphic brands for heritage destinations—grounded in cultural interpretation and visual symbolism—has received limited scholarly attention. This article proposes a protocol for constructing an identitary graphic brand tailored to UNESCO World Heritage Sites, using local cultural iconography as a key resource for communicating site identity. To achieve this, a mixedmethods approach was implemented, structured in three sequential phases. The first involved a systematic review of specialized literature in history, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy, complemented by the collection of documentary data related to the heritage site. In the second phase, fieldwork was conducted using an observational technique applied to a random sample of 150 organizations from three strategic sectors in Quito: cultural centers, tourism operators, and commercial establishments. This allowed for the identification of iconographic elements within their visual identities. The third phase consisted of in-depth interviews with organizational leaders, aimed at exploring their perceptions, branding strategies, and the symbolic use of cultural references. Findings demonstrate a strong appreciation for cultural iconography among key stakeholders, yet reveal a limited integration of these elements into institutional and commercial communication strategies. This gap highlights the need for more culturally informed branding practices. The results also offer insights into how design decisions are made in heritage contexts and the extent to which they reflect authentic local identity. This interdisciplinary framework offers a transferable model for other heritage destinations seeking to enhance their visibility and cultural relevance through meaningful and context-specific graphic branding.

Since its establishment in 2021, the Sago Festival in Sebangun Village, Sambas Regency, has evolved into an annual cultural event that simultaneously celebrates local heritage and promotes community-based economic empowerment. This study aims to formulate strategic directions for enhancing the festival’s development within the framework of Community-Based Tourism (CBT), ensuring its sustainability and optimizing socio-economic outcomes. A qualitative descriptive approach was employed, integrating field observations, in-depth interviews, and literature analysis. The collected data were systematically examined using the SWOT analytical framework. The findings indicate that the festival’s primary strengths include active community participation, well-established local branding, and the abundance of sago resources. Conversely, internal weaknesses consist of venue instability, declining sago tree availability, and limited promotional efforts. External opportunities—such as collaboration with governmental and academic institutions and the expansion of digital media—further enhance the festival’s development prospects. Drawing from these insights, five strategic directions are proposed: (1) establishing a permanent festival venue; (2) implementing sustainable sago cultivation programs; (3) strengthening digital marketing and destination branding; (4) fostering inter-village and stakeholder collaboration; and (5) enhancing youth engagement through cultural education and capacity-building initiatives. Collectively, these strategies emphasize the significance of participatory management and sustainable resource utilization in advancing cultural tourism. Accordingly, the Sago Festival represents a promising model for community-based cultural tourism development in Sambas.

This study investigated the effects of destination antecedents on destination tourist resonance, focusing on Coron, Palawan, Philippines. Anchored in the Tourist-based Brand Equity model, the research examined how destination salience, performance, and imagery influence tourist loyalty and emotional connections, with tourist judgments and feelings serving as mediators. The study also evaluated the moderating role of destination branding in these relationships. Employing a predictive-causal research design, data were collected through structured surveys administered to tourists who visited Coron, Palawan, Philippines. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the causal relationships between the constructs. The findings indicate that destination salience significantly affects destination performance, imagery, and tourist resonance. Destination performance and imagery, along with tourist judgments and feelings, were found to mediate the relationship between destination salience and tourist resonance, highlighting the importance of both cognitive and emotional evaluations. However, the moderating role of destination branding showed no significant impact on these relationships, suggesting the need for more cohesive branding strategies. This research addressed gaps in the application of brand equity models to emerging destinations and provided insights for enhancing localized branding strategies.

ABSTRACT This study extends the customer-based brand equity model by incorporating tourism xenophilia and destination brand coolness. Perceptions of Japan were examined using survey data from 408 American travelers, analyzed through PLS-SEM. The results reveal that tourism xenophilia significantly enhances brand awareness, image, and quality, indicating that fascination with foreignness fosters favorable destination brand perceptions. Destination brand coolness also emerged as a key driver of overall destination brand equity, directly contributing to competitive advantage. Furthermore, self-congruence with destination image had a more substantial influence on brand formation than social status. These findings advance destination branding research by highlighting the role of personality traits and contemporary symbolic factors while offering practical guidance for tailoring marketing strategies to attract xenophiles.

Recently, the role of public art in the tourism industry has been of interest and public art has become an important factor in choosing a tourist destination for tourists. However, the exploitation of public art in tourism activities in Vietnam has not received due attention and has not brought positive impacts on enhancing the brand of tourist destinations. Through qualitative methods, the study explores the potential, current situation and challenges in exploiting public art and building tourist destination brands in Vietnam. The research results show that public art can create highlights for urban and rural spaces and make an important contribution to building the brand of tourist destinations in the hearts of tourists. Public art works continue to contribute to the preservation of local culture, create new aesthetic values and give tourists impressive feelings about that destination. Practice in Vietnam shows that the exploitation of public art has not received due attention. Based on research results and lessons learned from around the world, some recommendations are made to continue exploiting public art to build tourist destination brands in the context of developing art tourism and creative tourism.

The digital era has brought profound changes to tourism governance, reshaping how destinations are managed, promoted, and perceived. Traditional governance structures, once reliant on top-down communication and bureaucratic controls, are increasingly complemented or disrupted by dynamic digital technologies, particularly social media. These platforms not only serve as real-time communication tools but also function as participatory spaces for public discourse, enabling transparency, stakeholder engagement, and institutional accountability. Given the limited scholarly focus on the intersection of social media and governance integrity, this study aims to explore how digital platforms can be harnessed to promote ethical tourism practices, enhance transparency, and strengthen public trust in governance mechanisms. To achieve this, a systematic scoping review was conducted using a structured search strategy within the Scopus database. The initial screening identified 209 articles, of which 22 peer-reviewed journal publications from 2020 to 2025 were selected based on strict inclusion criteria. The selected literature was analysed using an integrative thematic approach to identify dominant trends and theoretical insights related to digital governance, stakeholder engagement, destination branding, and technological innovation. The findings reveal that social media enhances policy implementation, supports crisis communication, and fosters inclusive branding through co-created content. While offering new governance opportunities, challenges such as data ethics, algorithmic bias, and digital inequality remain critical concerns. The study concludes that aligning technological innovation with ethical governance and participatory models is essential for fostering integrity, transparency, and resilience in tourism governance systems of the digital age.

Purpose This paper explores whether Terras de Trás-os-Montes, a rural low-density region in northeastern Portugal, has the conditions to attract digital nomads, focusing on tourism resources, stakeholder engagement, and nomad satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods qualitative approach combined a descriptive analysis of 191 tourism enterprises with twelve semi-structured interviews involving municipal managers, tourism entrepreneurs, and digital nomads. Findings The region offers attractive lifestyle attributes such as authenticity, tranquility, and affordability. However, limitations in internet connectivity, transportation, and rental housing constrain its competitiveness. Stakeholders showed interest in this segment but lacked concrete strategies. Research limitations/implications The study is limited by a small sample of digital nomads and a lack of perspectives from non-tourism community members. Future research should include broader stakeholder engagement, longitudinal analysis, and policy evaluation to assess long-term impacts on rural development. Practical implications A strategic framework is proposed to improve digital infrastructure, flexible accommodation, stakeholder coordination, and destination branding, enhancing rural attractiveness and supporting regional revitalization. Originality/value This study contributes novel empirical evidence on digital nomadism in rural low-density region, an underexplored context in existing literature. It provides a theoretically grounded, actionable roadmap for regional stakeholders and tourism policymakers seeking to attract digital nomads as agents of territorial revitalization.

Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) have emerged as significant instruments for promoting sustainable tourism and regional integration in Southern Africa. However, the effects of TFCA public tourism policies on destination marketing and management remain insufficiently understood, particularly from the perspective of private sector stakeholders. This research gap persists despite the critical role of private sector operators in delivering destination brand promises and managing competitive tourism experiences. This study investigated the impact of TFCA public tourism policies on destination marketing and management in Zambia's Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA, employing a critical realist (CR) philosophical framework combined with grounded theory and retroductive analysis. A qualitatively driven case study was conducted in the Livingstone tourism development area, collecting data from 30 private-sector stakeholders through semi-structured interviews and strategic document analysis. Data analysis utilised grounded theory for theory building, thematic analysis for pattern identification, and retroduction to uncover underlying causal mechanisms. The findings reveal that TFCA policies significantly impact destination marketing and management through four underlying mechanisms: power dynamics, institutional inertia, resource constraints, and limited stakeholder engagement. These mechanisms operate on deep structures—including existing policy frameworks, economic systems, and social norms—to produce observable outcomes such as stakeholder conflicts, resistance to change, inequitable benefit distribution, limited infrastructure development, and inefficient policy implementation. The study contributes a context-specific framework for private sector involvement in TFCA public tourism policy-making and strategic agenda-setting. Theoretical contributions include advancing the application of critical realism in tourism policy research beyond its traditional positivist and interpretivist foundations, and demonstrating the utility of mechanism-based explanations for understanding complex multi-stakeholder policy environments. Practical implications emphasise the necessity of collaborative governance, context-sensitive policies, enhanced stakeholder engagement, and adaptive management strategies for successful TFCA implementation and sustainability.

This study analyses the relevance of the marketing budget in achieving the target of international tourist arrivals (ITA) to Indonesia post-pandemic. Using system dynamics modelling and Powersim 10 software, this research examines the relationship between marketing budget allocation, destination branding, and international tourist arrivals. The results of the model show that the allocated budget is insufficient to meet the established target. It is recommended that the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) consider increasing the marketing budget by 10% annually to achieve the desired target. This budgetary intervention is expected to significantly impact the growth in international tourist arrivals and the resulting foreign exchange earnings.

The abundant pineapple waste in East Lombok remains underutilized as a functional food resource and has not been integrated into sustainable agrotourism development, leading to environmental challenges and missed economic opportunities for local communities. This study aims to design a model for converting pineapple waste into functional food products within a zero-waste agrotourism and circular economy framework that supports community-based development. A descriptive qualitative literature review was conducted using reputable journals, BPS statistics, data from agricultural and tourism agencies, and regional planning documents. Thematic analysis identified the bioactive potential of pineapple waste, explored functional product innovations, and formulated integration schemes for agrotourism activities. The results show that pineapple peel, core, and crown contain bromelain, phenolic compounds, and dietary fiber that can be processed into fermented beverages, functional vinegar, peel tea, fiber flour, and high-fiber snacks suitable as agrotourism products. Integrating these products through workshops, demonstrations, tasting sessions, educational tours, and souvenir sales can enhance commodity value, strengthen green destination branding, and support the SDGs. Overall, the utilization of pineapple waste offers a synergistic strategy that links agriculture, food innovation, sustainability, and tourism. The study highlights the need to establish a circular economy–based pineapple agrotourism pilot model supported by product guidelines, food safety standards, innovation facilities, and collaboration among farmers, MSMEs, researchers, and local government.

This study examines tourists’ affective perceptions of multilingual public signage in Baubau’s heritage tourism landscape and how different language choices shape their engagement with the place. A semantic differential (SD) survey was distributed to 204 domestic and international visitors, who evaluated photographic stimuli representing Wolio (indigenous), Indonesian, English, and mixed-language signage across the dimensions of Evaluation, Potency, and Activity on a 7-point bipolar scale. Geospatial documentation of signage locations was incorporated to contextualise these perceptual responses within the physical tourism landscape. The results show a consistent descriptive trend in which Wolio signage received the highest mean rating (M = 1.98), followed by Indonesian (M = 1.88) and mixed-language signs (M = 1.78), while English received the lowest rating (M = 1.50). Although the repeated-measures ANOVA produced a marginal p-value (0.059), the overall trend suggests that indigenous and national languages elicit stronger emotional engagement from visitors than the global lingua franca. These findings underscore the symbolic and cultural value of Wolio and Indonesian in shaping the visitor experience, enhancing practical insights for planning multilingual signage, destination branding, and culturally sustainable tourism communication.

This study aims to analyze the implementation of the pentahelix model in the development of the Keranggan Ecotourism Village in South Tangerang City. The study used a descriptive qualitative approach with a case study method, where data were obtained through interviews, observations, and documentation studies. Informants were selected using a purposive sampling technique involving POKDARWIS members, government representatives, business actors, academics, and tourists. The results show that the pentahelix implementation is already underway through contributions from the government, community, private sector, academics, and the media. The Community Empowerment Group (POKDARWIS) plays a key role in mobilizing the community and liaising between stakeholders. The government has provided training, outreach, and promotion, but infrastructure support remains limited. The private sector contributes through CSR programs, although these are still short-term. Academics are involved in research and technological innovation, but lack ongoing support. The media plays a role in promotion, but communication strategies and destination branding are inconsistent. The main obstacles lie in the imbalanced roles between stakeholders, the lack of external networks, and the weakness of an integrated promotional strategy. This study suggests the need for stronger synergy between stakeholders by expanding government support, strengthening community capacity, building sustainable public-private partnerships, and optimizing the roles of academics and the media.

This study investigates the impact of resilience behaviour on destination brand love and equity in post-pandemic tourism. Drawing from the concept of destination brand love and the psychological resilience of travellers, the study uses a second-order factor analysis and structural equation modelling approach. A total of 357 responses were collected using field survey questionnaires and analysed using Smartpls version 4.0. Results show that destination brand love positively influences destination brand equity, but resilience behaviour moderates these effects. The findings indicate that DMOs need to carefully review their marketing communication and destination brand management strategies from current tourism business perspectives. The concept of brand love that encompasses the multidimensional concept of destination brand love and the theory of resilience behaviour comprehends the theoretical basis to explain the influence of resilience behaviour on destination brand love and destination brand equity.

Purpose Drawing upon the entertainment theory and cognitive evaluation theory, this paper aims to conceptualize and operationalize the concept of entertainment destination experience (EDE) and investigate its crucial role in destination branding. Design/methodology/approach Following rigorous scale development procedures, this study conducted four studies (i.e. item generation, item purification, scale refinement, and scale validation and model testing) to develop and validate the scale of EDE. Findings This study develops and validates a 22-item scale of EDE, consisting of six dimensions: hospitality, euphoria, enrichment, sensation, enlightenment, and interactivity experiences. The findings also reveal that EDE enhances destination memorability and satisfaction, which, in turn, stimulates tourists’ destination brand love. Practical implications The findings offer a useful toolkit for experience design and destination branding, allowing hospitality and tourism practitioners to tailor EDEs that effectively fulfill tourists’ primary demand for entertainment. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study represents a pioneering effort to develop a reliable and valid scale for measuring EDE, while providing empirical evidence on its vital contribution to destination branding.

Food and social media have risen in popularity with posting and sharing amongst younger generations. Modern youth represent a level of expertise or comfort with technology. This paper aims to analyse and compare food-tourism sharing behavior in TikTok across. Adopting a quantitative research approach a response from the sample of 315 respondents will be collected among the online consumer which is primary data obtained through questionnaires. The sampling technique was a purposive sampling technique. The data collection method used in this research is allocating an opinion poll online using Google Forms. The findings of this research will be beneficial to tourism marketers in Malaysia by delivering insights into Gen Z’s food travel behavior on TikTok, which empower them to grow in strategies in the direction of entice young travelers indirectly boost the branding of food tourism destinations.

This study investigates the relationship between local event loyalty and destination loyalty; it focuses on identifying the characteristics of high-loyalty tourists. Data from 12,391 tourists who attended a 2022 regional art festival were analyzed comprehensively. The path analysis results indicate that event revisit intention positively influences destination revisit intention, both of which are attitudinal factors of loyalty. Furthermore, behavioral factors such as previous visits, current season visits, and overnight stays, were found to affect event loyalty significantly. The study’s model provides a composite measure of tourists’ event loyalty, whereas the χ2 tests and descriptive analyses results reveal the characteristics of high-loyalty tourists. Specifically, art-related professionals and art lovers demonstrated high loyalty to the art event, with a subsequent increase in interest in visiting other tourist spots in the same destination and a positive impression of the prefecture where the event was held. The findings suggest that the event effectively contributed to destination branding, which encompasses tourist loyalty, intention to revisit the area, and image improvement. The research outcomes emphasize the significance of the event in regional revitalization efforts, highlighting the need for a comprehensive regional branding strategy that engages the entire region and improves event quality.

This study examines how digital nomads act as unintentional brand ambassadors shaping destination image via lifestyle content. Although nomads influence place perceptions through blogs, vlogs, and social media, tourism institutions rarely acknowledge their role. We theorize this diffuse effect as ambient influence—the cumulative, non-promotional impact of lifestyle posts—and test whether nomads operate as unintentional brand intermediaries affecting destination image and travel intention. A multi-method design includes a survey of 487 international travelers modeling links among exposure, perceived authenticity, destination image, and travel intention; an experiment with 210 participants comparing nomad versus influencer videos; and interviews with 14 DMO professionals examining institutional responses. Results indicate that nomad content improves destination image and travel intention via perceived authenticity and relational trust. Relative to influencers, nomads are viewed as more credible and less commercially motivated. However, qualitative evidence shows that DMOs often overlook this influence due to ambiguity, control-oriented branding, and reliance on performance metrics ill-suited to informal media. The study formalizes ambient influence to capture the cumulative, non-promotional impact of nomad content and identifies a strategic blind spot in institutional engagement. It contributes by reconceptualizing influence beyond formal marketing and offers guidance for tourism management, including broader recognition frameworks and updated evaluation of user-generated content.