Good Match, Deep Love: Three Studies Examining the Celebrity Endorsement’s Influence on Destination Brand Love

Destination brand love plays an important role in contributing to the competitive advantage of a destination. Based on the meaning transfer theory, match-up hypothesis, schema theory, etc., this study proposed a hierarchical model that examines the effects of three pairs of congruences among “celebrity,” “destination brand,” and “tourist” on destination brand love. A triangulation-based research design, taking Hong Kong, Shanghai, and New Zealand as focal destination brands, was used to collect data to test the hypotheses. The results showed that tourist/destination congruence and destination brand trust sequentially mediate the influence of celebrity/destination congruence and celebrity/tourist congruence on destination brand love. Tourist/destination congruence, attitude toward the ad, and attitude toward the destination sequentially mediate the influence of celebrity/destination congruence and celebrity/tourist congruence on destination brand love.