Perceived authenticity of AI-generated tourism video and destination attractiveness: An entity-referent correspondence perspective

Grounded in the entity-referent correspondence (ERC) framework, this study examines how three authenticity dimensions of AI-generated destination portrayals, true-to-ideal, true-to-fact, and true-to-self, relate to destination attractiveness via parallel and sequential pathways of place imagination and mental simulation. Analysis of 406 participants exposed to an AI-generated tourism video reveals that true-to-ideal and true-to-fact authenticity show significant direct effects on destination attractiveness, whereas true-to-self authenticity operates entirely indirectly, consistent with a meaning-making route. For parallel mediation, true-to-ideal and true-to-self authenticity exert significant indirect effects via both mediators, whereas true-to-fact authenticity does so only through place imagination. The sequential pathway from place imagination to mental simulation receives consistent support across all dimensions. Theoretically, this study advances the ERC framework from a static typology to a processual account by delineating the distinct cognitive routes of each referent and highlighting both the conceptual promise and measurement challenges of operationalizing true-to-self authenticity as perceived communicative sincerity in algorithmically generated portrayals.