Travel and Tourism Marketing in the age of the conscious tourists: a study on CSR and tourist brand advocacy

ABSTRACTRecognizing the power of consumer-led dialogue over traditional company-led marketing, travel and tourism organizations increasingly appreciate the role of consumer advocacy. This study explored consumer advocacy as an outcome of corporate social responsibility (CSR) through brand admiration and attitude and evaluated the conditional indirect influence of altruistic values. Our findings revealed that CSR directly impacts travel consumer advocacy, significantly mediated by brand admiration and attitude. The findings also demonstrated the significant conditional indirect influence of altruistic values. Our research suggests that an effective CSR strategy in a travel and tourims organization offers a competitive edge by cultivating travel and tourism consumers into brand advocates.KEYWORDS: Tourism Marketing strategiesCSR in Tourismdestination brand advocacyPakistan tourism growthsustainable tourism practiceshotel consumer behaviortourism communication channelsethical travel choicescompetitive positioning in Tourismtourism consumer advocacy Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis research is supported by Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number [PNURSP2023R4], Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.