Bridging the Distance: Understanding the Role of Destination Anthropomorphism in Videos on Tourists’ Travel Intention

Destination anthropomorphism has emerged as a significant promotional strategy for destination marketers, but how to effectively embed anthropomorphic elements in destination promotional videos remains unclear. Based on anthropomorphism theory and social presence theory, this study uses a mixed method approach combining empirical analysis and experiments to explore the effect and mechanism of destination anthropomorphism in videos on tourists’ travel intention. Specifically, the empirical analysis based on secondary data captured from TikTok indicates that anthropomorphic destinations can elicit greater tourists’ travel intention than non-anthropomorphic destinations in videos, particularly for warm destinations or videos with human elements. The results of scenario-based experiments reveal that this effect is mediated by social presence. The destination stereotype and human elements in videos play moderated mediating roles in these effects. This study provides theoretical implications for research on destination anthropomorphism in the context of new media and offers valuable insights for destination marketers in video marketing.