How the creativity and authenticity of destination short videos influence audiences’ attitudes toward videos and destinations: the mediating role of emotions and the moderating role of parasocial interaction with Internet celebrities

More and more destinations are using short videos with Internet celebrities to attract tourists through social media. Building upon the attention-interest-desire-action model (AIDA), this study investigates the influence of the content (creativity and authenticity) of destination short videos on audiences’ emotions (awe and enjoyment), and awe and enjoyment further influence audiences’ attitudes toward videos and destinations, considering the moderating effect of parasocial interaction. Data were collected by systematic sampling and analyzed by PLS-SEM. The results indicated that creativity and authenticity have a positive influence on awe and enjoyment, and authenticity has a greater influence on emotions than creativity. Awe and enjoyment have a positive influence on the attitude toward the short video, which further influences the attitude toward travel to the destination. In addition, parasocial positively moderates the relationship between awe and attitude toward the video and negatively moderates the relationship between enjoyment and attitude toward the video. The study contributes to destination marketing literature by revealing the underlying mechanism of how the content of destination short videos shapes audiences’ attitudes. In addition, suggestions are provided on how destinations can develop effective destination short videos to attract potential tourists.