Recently, Zhou Yan, a doctoral student from the College of Tourism of Huaqiao University (HQU), published a first-authored research paper titled “Who should the spotlight be on? The interactive effects of celebrity endorser type and destination personality” in Tourism Management.

Tourism Management, with an impact factor of 12.7 in 2022, is a JCR Q1 journal and an ABS4 star journal dedicated to publishing the latest research findings in tourism management, tourism policies, tourist consumer behavior, tourism marketing, tourism economics, and destination management.

Celebrity endorsements are becoming a popular destination marketing strategy. However, most existing studies focus on the effect of real celebrity endorsers and less on virtual celebrity endorsers. Applying construal level theory, this study examined the interaction between celebrity endorser type (real celebrity vs. virtual celebrity) and destination personality (sincere vs. exciting). Results across three scenario-based experiments indicated an interaction effect between celebrity endorser type and destination personality, and tourists’ perceived fit contributes to a mediating role in this process. Specifically, when a sincere destination adopts a real celebrity endorser and an exciting destination uses a virtual celebrity endorser, tourists will generate a higher perceived fit and more favorable attitude toward the destination. This study helps expand the research perspective and theoretical framework on celebrity endorsement in tourism and provides managerial implications for selecting suitable endorsers for destinations with different personalities.

This paper was published with HQU College of Tourism as the first affiliation and Prof. Ruan Wenqi as the corresponding author. Other co-authors include Prof. Li Yongquan, Dr.Zhang Shuning, and doctoral student Yang Tingting.

Link to the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517724000761

(Editor: Wei Linying)