Understanding how tourism-seeking behaviors influence travel decisions is essential to designing effective marketing strategies. This qualitative exploratory study examined the motivations, preferences, and digital responses of frequent travelers to assess how this shapes their destination choices and perceptions of tourism promotions. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 28 participants who travel for leisure at least three times annually. Reflexive thematic analysis revealed four dominant behavioral patterns: the preference for nature-based and emotionally restorative travel; the integration of work trips with leisure; the influence of personal and cultural values; and the reliance on authentic, visual, and relatable digital content. Participants consistently favored tourism campaigns grounded in real experiences, practical messaging, and emotional storytelling over polished advertisements. Theoretically, the findings contribute to tourism behavior theory by reinforcing the emotional, identity-driven, and digitally influenced nature of modern travel decisions. Strategically, the study proposes a refined model for marketing innovation that emphasizes experiential authenticity, digital resonance, and adaptive storytelling in campaign design. These insights underline the need for tourism marketers to create content that aligns with travelers’ emotional states, digital habits, and lifestyle values. However, this study was limited by its sample scope and demographic focus, which may not capture broader trends across less frequent travelers or different cultural contexts. Future research should explore comparative behaviors across age groups, regions, and travel types to enhance the generalizability and depth of strategic insights for tourism marketing. This paper addresses a gap in tourism behavior literature: how emotional needs, cultural values, and digital media co-influence travel decisions and marketing receptivity. It aims to understand the behavioral logic underlying destination choice and content engagement. Using a qualitative approach, it analyzes in-depth interviews to extract emergent themes and translate them into actionable insights. The paper contributes to theory and practice by offering a culturally grounded, emotionally intelligent, and digitally relevant model of travel behavior.
Reamico et al. (Thu,) studied this question.