Unveiling the Pathway from Digitalization and Innovation Perceptions to Sharing Intentions Through the Lens of Destination Competitiveness

Tourism destinations increasingly rely on digitalization and innovation to strengthen their competitive position and stimulate tourists’ post-visit behaviors. However, empirical evidence explaining how tourists’ perceptions of digitalization and innovation are translated into sharing intentions, particularly from an integrated competitiveness perspective, remains limited. Addressing this gap and grounded in Service-Dominant Logic, this study investigates the relationships between digitalization perceptions, innovation perceptions, destination competitiveness, and tourists’ sharing intentions. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from Generation Z domestic tourists who had visited digitally enabled destinations within the past 12 months. The proposed research model was tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that perceptions of digitalization and innovation significantly enhance destination competitiveness, which in turn positively influences tourists’ sharing intentions. Moreover, destination competitiveness is confirmed as a partial mediator in the relationships between digitalization perceptions and sharing intentions, as well as between innovation perceptions and sharing intentions. The novelty of this study lies in conceptualizing destination competitiveness as a behavioral transmission mechanism that converts perceived digital and innovative destination attributes into tourists’ voluntary sharing behavior, rather than treating digitalization and innovation as direct antecedents alone. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in reconceptualizing destination competitiveness as a dynamic value co-creation mechanism that mediates the transformation of digitalization and innovation into tourists’ sharing intentions within a Service-Dominant Logic framework.