Self-love towards destinations: scale development and validation
(A2025-126092)

AUTHORS

DIMITRA MARGIETA LYKOUDI, UNIVERSITY OF PIRAEUS; GEORGIA ZOUNI, University of Piraeus; MARKOS TSOGAS, University of Piraeus

ABSTRACT

Self-love is found to be a central aspect of destination love (Lykoudi, Zouni & Tsogas, 2023). This study aspires to (1) methodologically advance the novel concept of self-love in tourism by (a) developing a measurement scale that transcends the confines of specific destination brands and (b) empirically validate its sub-factors and measurement items, and (2) furnish a coherent, empirically substantiated framework for crafting effective destination marketing strategies, based on tourists’ self-love emotions. The analysis showed that self-love is a multi-dimensional, reflective-formative second-order model. The results of this study extend the current knowledge in both tourism and marketing by providing academics a comprehensive understanding of the dimensions of self- love towards destinations as well as its measurement scale, and offering tourism professionals strategic insights on leveraging the concept of self-love to gain a competitive edge in the destination marketplace.