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This pioneering study explores the intersection between Neurotourism, defined as the integration of neurosciences in tourism, and the perception of tourism Brand Personality (BP) through the advanced use of psychophysiology techniques, specifically Eye-Tracking (ET) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR). It analyses how tourism destination brand logos/combination marks and images generated by artificial intelligence (AI) influence consumer attention and emotional response. Focusing on the five dimensions of BP proposed by Aaker (1997) - sincerity, excitement, sophistication, competence, and ruggedness - this study highlights significant differences in how men and women process and react to brand values associated with specific cities. Employing a rigorous methodological approach and the application of non-parametric statistical analyses, the findings reveal distinct patterns of visual attention and emotional responses across genders, emphasising the importance of considering BP in the marketing and design of tourism destination brand logos/combination marks. This work not only advances theoretical understanding of tourist consumer behaviour but also offers relevant practical implications for tourism marketing and destination management.

Despite the fact that User-Generated-Content (UGC) has emerged as a widely implemented practice in many disciplines and industries, including tourism and hospitality, academic research lacks a measurement method for hotels’ managerial responses to UGCReviews (UGC-R). Based on data from a survey of 335 hotels, this article validates a 32-item UGC-Review scale that, through a battery of exploratory factorial analysis tests, comprises 6 constructs: identification of the reputation landscape; assessment of changes in the company´s ratings and rankings over time; determination of the publication reach; comparison with industry competitors; review and comparison of ranking methodologies and increased reputational scores. The results show that the proposal scale demonstrates reliability and dimensionality. The proposed UGC-R scale is a strategic tool for business managers aiming to improve their marketing strategies and to gain insig

Tourists usually configure and develop ideas about possible destinations based on information previously gathered from both social media and the official web of the destination management organization (DMO). In spite of the relevance of said information sources, there have not been many studies evaluating how these different sources influence the destination image. This research proposes a model intended to explain the image creation process of a destination taking into account both the DMO’s online platforms and the perceived psychological distance. The proposed model is tested with an empirical study including a questionnaire which collects data from 264 participants. The validity of the model is reviewed through PLS analysis. Results show that the psychological distance does not influence the overall destination image. In addition, the overall destination image can be estimated to a larger extent when tourists approach social media as their main source of information. Implications and conclusions are discussed.

This research develops a model to predict the effect of advertising a socially responsible activity on perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on consumer loyalty. It examines the relationships between company-cause congruence, corporate credibility, altruism attribution and perceived CSR, and CSR with consumer loyalty, and analyzes the moderating effect of the type of communication medium (i.e. traditional medium vs. social medium). This study is original because it fills the gap in the CSR communication literature in the evaluation of how the use of one or another type of medium to advertise a cause related marketing activity influences the effect of perceived CSR on consumer loyalty. An empirical study was conducted with two samples of consumers, each of which was exposed to the same advertisement, inserted in either a newspaper or posted on a social network. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results carry implications for CSR activities and communications management as they validate the proposed model that integrates the antecedents of perceived CSR and its influence on loyalty, and show that the traditional medium model has a better fit and its overall effect is greater than the social medium model. From a practical perspective, this study has several implications regarding the importance of communicating CSR activities.

Hotel booking decisions are increasingly influenced by consumer feedback available on social media sites. Using data submitted by customers on TripAdvisor, this study analyzes the customer satisfaction ratings posted for 2,211 hotels. The study provides four key contributions to our knowledge on this subject. Firstly, a comparative analysis was conducted of customer ratings for hotels located on the Spanish coast and Portugal’s southern coast. Secondly, significant differences were found in the number of comments and average online review ratings, which showed a correlation to the tourism destinations’ geographical locations. Thirdly, the study found that customers tend to rate their hotel experiences positively. Fourthly, the customers’ overall level of satisfaction with a hotel tends to increase proportionately based on the number of customer feedback comments posted for that hotel. Consequently, one of this study’s findings is that hotels should encourage their customers to post comments on customer review websites to balance out any negative feedback.

Abstract Technological developments are changing how users pay for goods and services. In the context of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, new payment systems have been established to reduce contact between buyer and seller. In addition to the pandemic, the future is payment processing is also uncertain due to the new EU security regulations of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Biometric payments one option that would guarantee the security of transactions and reduce the risk of contagion. This research analyses the intention to recommend the use of the mobile phone as a tool for collecting payments in a shop using iris reading as a biometric measure of the buyer. The moderating effect of the fear of contagion in the proposed relationships was also analysed. An online survey was carried out, which yielded a sample of 368 respondents. The results indicate that the main antecedents of intention to use, which precedes intention to recommend, are perceived trust, habit, personal innovativeness and comfort of use. Additionally, the moderating effect of COVID-19 was checked among users with a higher perception of risk. The results obtained have interesting implications for purchase management among manufacturers and retailers.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of brand trust and online brand community (OBC) trust on consumer repurchase intention and the positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention of OBC members. Design/methodology/approach – The research model was assessed using data from a sample of 628 OBC users using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings – The results show that brand trust positively affects repurchase intention and positive eWOM intention, both directly and indirectly through OBC trust. The total effect of brand trust on the results is greater than that of OBC trust. Originality/value – This research contributes to marketing theory and practice by analysing the combined effect of OBC trust and brand trust on the consumer–brand relationship in the context of OBCs.

El análisis de las comunidades virtuales de marca (CVM) está en un continuo crecimiento, gracias a su capacidad de fortalecer las relaciones con los distintos públicos de la empresa y de mejorar la imagen de marca. Son muchos los estudios que se han centrado en el análisis de sus ventajas para las organizaciones, fundamentalmente como herramienta de comunicación y de soporte a otras acciones comerciales. Hasta el momento se han analizado comunidades de productos de muy diversa naturaleza, desde marcas de alta preferencia (p. ej.: Apple), hasta productos de conveniencia (p. ej.: Nutella). Las marcas de automoción han sido el centro de parte de estos estudios (Harley-Davidson, Mini, Yamaha, etc.) poniendo de manifiesto el interés de las empresas de este importante sector económico, por reforzar la lealtad a la marca. No obstante, hasta el momento no ha sido estudiado el uso conjunto de las comunidades virtuales por las empresas de un sector sino que se han analizado casos independientes. Para responder a este vacío en el conocimiento de las comunidades virtuales de marca en el sector de automoción, el presente artículo analiza los usos que de ellas hacen 19 marcas de automóviles y de motocicletas, como medios de comunicación. La investigación concluye que las CVM se están utilizando principalmente para la comunicación de eventos, acciones y promociones, tal vez excesivamente, sin que se visualice claramente el fortalecimiento de la imagen, la interactividad ni la identificación de los usuarios con la comunidad, por lo que no se aprovecha convenientemente el potencial de este canal de comunicación. Se sugieren algunos cambios para mejorar el uso de las CVM.