Destination brand experience, brand positioning, and intention to visit: A multi-destination comparison study

Brand experience, critical to the success of businesses, is well studied in marketing research. However, little is known about its effect on building advantages of competitive differentiation and brand positioning, especially in the tourism field. This study investigated the applicability of a well-established brand experience model from marketing research through a comparative study across multiple destinations. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were utilized to examine the effect of destination brand experience on tourist perception of destinations and regression analysis was utilized to examine the effect of four dimensions of destination brand experience on tourists' visit intention. Results showed that tourists perceived differently on all four dimensions of their brand experiences across different destinations. The sensory and affective dimensions of destination brand experience have positive effects on tourists' visit intention. This study provides marketing intelligence for destinations to create strong differentiated advantages and achieve precise brand positioning.