THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONTENT MARKETING TO BUILDING THE BRAND IMAGE OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS

The objective of our article is to highlight the role of content marketing in building brand image and increasing awareness of tourist destinations, to advance the tourism sector. To achieve our objective, we reviewed the literature, building on previous studies, in order to define our conceptual model and hypotheses. Next, we tested these hypotheses with a quantitative study, based on an ad hoc questionnaire of 500 Internet users (tourists), and the results obtained were analyzed through structural equation modeling Pls approach.The study concluded that the dimensions of content marketing (relevance, credibility, and attractiveness) have a positive and direct impact in building the brand image and increasing awareness among tourists, while brand awareness is considered a real mediator between content marketing and the brand image of the tourist destination.