From off-site viewing to the intention to create: multimodal heritage cues in social media heritage food posts

Social media makes heritage food visible before destination visits, yet visibility alone does not explain why off-site viewers become willing to create content. This study develops multimodal heritage-cue configuration, defined as the coordinated use of textual and visual cues communicating origin, craft, place, sensory qualities, social embeddedness, and memory. Using COBRAs to specify the behavioral outcome and digital heritage communication to explain experiential antecedents, we test whether these cues activate imagery vividness, transportation, and existential authenticity, increasing creation-oriented COBRAs intention. Study 1 used a controlled 2 × 2 experiment with strictly matched UGC-framed posts to isolate high-versus-low heritage-cue and social-popularity effects. Study 2 examined the parallel experiential mechanisms and the moderating role of content source. Across both studies, high heritage-cue configuration strengthened all three experiential pathways and creation-oriented intention. Social popularity selectively amplified transportation, whereas UGC framing strengthened existential authenticity. Platform cues amplify, but do not replace, well-configured heritage content.