Virtual influencers in tourism: the roles of language style and social presence

Purpose To promote tourist destinations, travel agencies are leveraging virtual influencers (VIs) to enhance destination marketing. This study aims to investigate the impact of the language style (emotional vs rational) adopted by VIs to promote tourist destinations based on consumer social presence and visit intention. The study also considers the interplay between VI types (human-like vs cartoon-like). Design/methodology/approach Based on social response and the uncanny valley theory, two pretests and three online experiments were designed. A total of 712 respondents completed the online surveys. Findings The results indicated that VIs using emotional language (vs rational language) significantly enhanced visit intention, while social presence mediated this process. It was found that emotional language paired with cartoon-like VIs yielded the strongest synergistic effect. Originality/value The study also revealed that the role of language style and VI type when engaged in destination promotion, contributes to the language and VI literature by offering insights to harness the potential of VIs.