Does destination gender matter for destination brand attachment and brand love? The moderating role of destination involvement
Marketing Intelligence & Planning
ISSN: 0263-4503
Article publication date: 15 December 2023
Issue publication date: 8 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The main purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to investigate the unexplored connections among destination gender personality, destination stereotypes, brand attachment and destination brand love and (2) to examine the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between destination stereotypes and destination brand attachment (DBA).
Design/methodology/approach
The conceptual model is evaluated using qualitative methods (i.e. three focus groups, six academic experts and a pilot study). In addition, using an empirical study with 610 international travelers who visited Egypt selected by systematic random sampling, 8 hypotheses were analyzed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) by AMOS 23, confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory factor analyses.
Findings
The study’s results suggest that destination gender plays a vital role in enhancing stereotypes, stereotypes positively affect attachment and DBA positively affects destination brand love. Finally, the results show that destination involvement moderates the dual influence of the warmth and competence of stereotypes on destination attachment.
Practical implications
The research supports the contention that social perception mechanisms are crucial in destination brand perception. It offers new understandings of the association between customers' destination brand perceptions and their responses to destinations.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the travel literature by analyzing a novel model of destination gender personality, stereotypes, DBA and destination brand love using both social role (SR) theory and a stereotype content model (SCM). Besides attempting this task, it explores the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between stereotypes and destination attachment using the elaboration likelihood model.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank the editor-in-chief, the associate editor, and the anonymous reviewers of the Marketing Intelligence and Planning Journal for their constructive and valuable comments and suggestions. Also, the authors would like to thank the Business Administration Department, Faculty of Commerce, Assiut University, Egypt.
Since submission of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliation(s): Ahmed Hamdy is at the Business Administration Department, Faculty of Commerce, Assiut University, Egypt.
Citation
Hamdy, A., Zhang, J. and Eid, R. (2024), "Does destination gender matter for destination brand attachment and brand love? The moderating role of destination involvement", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 120-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-05-2023-0211
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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