From Envy to Aspiration: How Travel Influencer Characteristics Shape Travel Aspiration Through Benign and Malicious Envy?

Social media travel influencers have emerged as powerful catalysts of travel aspiration, yet the emotional mechanisms connecting influencer characteristics to audience aspiration remain underexplored. Drawing on Social Comparison Theory and Dual Envy Theory, this study proposes and tests an integrated framework in which attractiveness, popularity, and perceived similarity shape travel aspiration through the parallel mediating pathways of benign and malicious envy. Data were collected from 311 followers of travel influencers and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results reveal that influencer popularity is the strongest direct predictor of travel aspiration, while perceived similarity is the strongest antecedent of benign envy. Benign envy significantly and consistently mediates the relationships between all three influencer characteristics and travel aspiration through complementary partial mediation. Contrary to theoretical expectations, influencer attractiveness does not significantly predict malicious envy, and malicious envy exerts no significant influence on travel aspiration, nor does it mediate any relationship. These findings reveal a meaningful asymmetry between the two envy pathways, demonstrating that not all envy translates into behavioral outcomes. The study extends Social Comparison Theory and Dual Envy Theory to the travel influencer domain and offers actionable guidance for destination marketers and influencer strategy practitioners on designing relatability-driven content that activates aspirational emotional responses.