The more you visit, the less you experience: Exploring the decline of destination brand experience with increasing number of visits

Although destination brand experience is central to tourists’ evaluations and behaviors, little is known about how repeated visits shape that experience. We examine whether and why destination experience declines as the number of visits increases and propose a novelty-reduction account whereby repeated visits can reduce perceived novelty and hedonic stimulation, leading to a fading effect. Two complementary studies test this account. Study 1 (n = 372) surveys outbound tourists across destinations to estimate the direct and moderated effects of prior visits on each experience dimension. Study 2 (n = 900) focuses on inbound tourists to a single destination to replicate and extend the analysis with moderated-mediation models. The results show that a greater number of prior visits is associated with weaker sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences among international (but not domestic) tourists and indirectly reduces destination love, enthusiasm, and endorsement through these experience dimensions. The findings position the number of visits as a useful segmentation variable for destination marketing. In practice, destination management organizations can sustain engagement and attachment by curating differentiated itineraries for first-time vs repeat international visitors and by rotating distinctive experiences designed to refresh perceived novelty. • Repeated visits weaken the destination experience for international tourists. • There is no decline in destination experience among domestic tourists. • Four experience dimensions exhibit a decrease in destination experience. • Experience mediates love, enthusiasm and endorsement. • The number of visits is a useful segmentation lever.