Digital destination innovation and destination behavioral intention in CPEC destinations: implications for sustainable tourism management

Abstract

Digital transformation is reshaping tourism markets by enabling destinations to communicate with prospective visitors, strengthen their online reputation, and present distinctive destination experiences through digitally connected environments. This study examines the relationships among social media marketing efforts, e-reputation, perceived authentic destination experience, destination image, and destination behavioral intention (DBI) in emerging destinations along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework and Destination Image Theory, the study conceptualizes destination image as an internal cognitive-affective evaluative state linking digital, reputational, and experiential destination-related stimuli with behavioral intention. Data were collected from 385 respondents familiar with CPEC destinations and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that social media marketing efforts, e-reputation, and perceived authentic destination experience are positively associated with destination image, which is in turn positively associated with destination behavioral intention. Statistically significant indirect associations through destination image are also consistent with the theoretically proposed mediating pathways. Importance–Performance Map Analysis further identifies perceived authentic destination experience as the relatively most important antecedent among the examined exogenous constructs within the estimated model, while e-reputation exhibits comparatively lower performance and may therefore warrant managerial attention. The study contributes to digital destination-marketing research by integrating digital communication, socially generated reputation, experiential authenticity, and destination image within a common evaluative framework in an emerging tourism context. Although sustainable tourism development was not directly measured, the findings may inform sustainability-oriented destination management when visitor interest is considered alongside environmental capacity, cultural preservation, community interests, and long-term destination-development objectives.