Exploring Influencer-Content Congruence in Creative Tourism: Behavioral and EEG Evidence

A critical gap exists in the tourism marketing literature due to the lack of systematic evidence regarding the optimal matching of influencer types (human and virtual) with creative tourism subtypes (traditional and contemporary) to enhance tourist immersion and participation. This study conducted an electroencephalography experiment and two online surveys. Results confirm human influencers enhance effectiveness for traditional creative tourism, while virtual influencers perform better for contemporary creative tourism. These matches were associated with lower theta and alpha activity, a pattern consistent with more efficient processing and stronger engagement within the video-viewing context. Further, novelty perception is primarily driven by tourism content rather than influencer type, and creative self-efficacy negatively moderates the positive effect of immersion on participation intention. Practically, marketers should pair human influencers with traditional activities and virtual influencers with contemporary experiences. Furthermore, campaigns should use highly immersive content to engage tourists with lower creative self-efficacy.