Fashion tailoring experience and destination brand equity: value co-creation through social media communications

Purpose Despite the growing transformation of artisanal fashion practices into interactive tourism experiences, their role in destination branding remains underexplored. This study aims to examine how tourists’ fashion tailoring experiences and value co-creation (VCC) influences their evaluation of fashion tailoring social media communication. The examination is conceptualized as a higher-order construct with evaluations of tailor shop-generated and user-generated content (UGC). The study also investigates how social media communication contributes to destination brand equity (DBE) and whether this relationship varies between online- and offline contexts. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with 659 tourists in Hoi An, Vietnam. It focused on those who had used express fashion tailoring services and engaged with related social media content. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 4.0 to assess the measurement and structural models. Findings Fashion tailoring experiences can positively influence VCC and fashion tailoring social media communication evaluation (FTSMCE). VCC can further enhance FTSMCE. FTSMCE can also drive DBE and mediate the effects of fashion tailoring experience and VCC. A sequential mediation effect is also confirmed between the fashion tailoring experience and DBE through VCC and FTSMCE. Finally, the FTSMCE–DBE effect is stronger in online rather than offline contexts. Originality/value This study extends tourism social media brand communication research by linking tourists’ offline fashion tailoring experiences and VCC to their evaluation of online brand communication and DBE. It conceptualizes FTSMCE as a higher-order construct integrating the evaluation of tailor shop-generated and UGC in experiential tourism. In practice, it offers guidance to strengthen DBE through experience design, VCC, content alignment and digital amplification.