From Content to Travel: How Blogs and Vlogs Shape Destination Diagnosticity and Visit Intention

Travel blogs and vlogs increasingly influence destination choices, yet limited research explains how their informational characteristics and planning functions help prospective tourists evaluate less familiar destinations. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this study examined how seven travel-content stimuli influence intention to visit Khon Kaen through perceived destination diagnosticity. Survey data from 403 respondents were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrapping with 5000 resamples, and permutation-based multigroup analysis. Content novelty, content reliability, itinerary information, and attraction information significantly enhanced perceived destination diagnosticity, whereas content understandability, content interestingness, and accommodation information had nonsignificant effects. Perceived destination diagnosticity strongly increased visit intention and transmitted the effects of novelty, reliability, itinerary information, and attraction information. Attraction information produced the strongest direct and indirect effects. Although some relationships displayed different significance patterns across the female and male subsamples, permutation testing identified no statistically significant between-group differences. The findings position perceived destination diagnosticity as a cognitive mechanism through which digital travel content supports destination evaluation and behavioral intention. They also provide practical guidance for destination marketers, tourism businesses, and content creators seeking to develop credible, distinctive, and decision-relevant content for digital tourism platforms.