Leveraging Metahuman Endorsers for Cultural Destinations
(A2025-123712)

AUTHORS

Ali Can, University of Portsmouth; Ammar Javed, University of Dundee; Yuksel Ekinci, University of Portsmouth

ABSTRACT

As tourism marketers aim to build brand loyalty for cultural destinations, understanding what drives people to endorse these brands is key. This study looks at how metahuman and human social media endorsers impact brand endorsement for cultural destinations, focusing on two factors: the destination’s charisma and its reputation. We conducted two online experiments with USA and UK participants through social media ads for real cultural destinations. We found that metahuman endorsers can notably boost a destination’s charisma, which in turn enhances its reputation and encourages tourists to feel more loyal. However, this effect changes depending on how familiar people are with the destination. The more familiar they are, the less powerful metahuman endorsers become in increasing brand charisma. These findings suggest that lesser-known cultural destinations can strategically leverage metahuman endorsers to enhance their appeal and reputation, thereby strengthening tourist loyalty.