Certification trust and cultural authenticity in sustainable destination branding: traveller perceptions, choice and loyalty-related intentions

This study examines how sustainability certification and perceived cultural authenticity relate to traveller responses in sustainable destination branding. An exploratory mixed-methods design combined an online survey of 128 Europe-based travellers with comparative case studies of Slovenia, Costa Rica and New Zealand, treated as independent evidence streams. Survey findings provided little evidence of an association between certification trust and reported influence on destination choice. In contrast, perceived cultural authenticity was strongly associated with authenticity-driven revisit intention, while revisit and recommendation intentions also showed a strong positive association, indicating co-variation between related loyalty responses rather than a directional relationship. The case studies showed that all three destinations combine sustainability certification or quality-assurance systems with community- and authenticity-oriented branding practices. Descriptive findings revealed relatively high trust in sustainability certification, but lower reported influence on destination choice, termed a certification trust–choice gap, without implying causality or a gap estimated through correlation analysis. The findings suggest that destination managers should combine credible and visible sustainability signals with authentic, locally grounded cultural experiences to strengthen traveller engagement and support loyalty-related intentions in sustainable destination branding strategies.