When express bespoke tailoring meets tourism: a meaning-transfer model from customer luxury experience to destination marketing

Purpose As luxury shifts toward experiential consumption, local fashion actors grounded in artisanal and co-created practices are becoming distinctive providers of luxury tourism experiences. Drawing on Meaning Transfer Theory, this study examines how customer luxury experience in express bespoke tailoring (EBT) shapes tourists' object- and destination-level responses, and their subsequent behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model and research hypotheses were assessed using PLS-SEM. Paper-based surveys were used to collect data from 560 multinational tourists engaging in EBT services in Hoi An, Viet Nam. Findings Tourists transfer meanings embedded in customer luxury experiences in EBT into perceived cultural authenticity of EBT garments and destination closeness, which subsequently drive eWOM and revisit intentions. The study also validates customer luxury experience in EBT as a multidimensional construct comprising service quality, authenticity, escapism, exclusivity, status, and aesthetic refinement. Research limitations/implications Generalization of the findings must be taken with caution across the sample and regions. Future research can examine the reverse meaning transfer mechanism. Originality/value This study extends Meaning Transfer Theory by showing how meanings generated through experiential luxury—operationalized as customer luxury experience—shape tourists' product evaluations, destination perceptions, and behavioral intentions in fashion tourism. It is also among the first to examine customer luxury experience in artisanal and co-created fashion tourism contexts.