Cycling travel vlog characteristics and low-carbon tourism intention: The roles of destination image and environmental self-efficacy

Cycling travel vlogs—first-person video diaries of long-distance bicycle journeys—are emerging as influential content for sustainable tourism communication, yet how their characteristics shape users' low-carbon travel intention through dual psychological pathways remains unexplored. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study examines how three vlog characteristics (content dissemination, interactivity, and entertainment) influence low-carbon travel intention via destination image and environmental self-efficacy as dual mediators. Analyzing data from 407 Chinese cycling vlog users using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), we obtain three key findings. First, content dissemination and interactivity symmetrically affect both mediators, while entertainment asymmetrically affects only destination image. Second, both mediators independently transmit vlog effects with comparable magnitudes. Third, a sequential chain emerges: destination image enhances self-efficacy, which in turn drives intention. These findings challenge the destination-centric tourism marketing paradigm, demonstrating that promoting low-carbon tourism requires simultaneously enhancing destination attractiveness and building capability beliefs—offering new theoretical and practical pathways for digital media-driven sustainable tourism.