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Generating destination brand Generating

destination
awareness and image through the brand
awareness
firm’s social media
Davood Ghorbanzadeh
Department of Management and Business,
Islamic Azad University Tehran North Branch, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran Received 30 September 2021
Revised 19 December 2021
Rafina Rafkatovna Zakieva 17 January 2022
Accepted 21 February 2022
Department of Industrial Electronics and Lighting Engineering,
Kazan State Power Engineering University, Kazan, Russian Federation
Mariya Kuznetsova
I M Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Aras Masood Ismael
Department of Information Technology, Sulaimani Polytechnic University,
Sulaimanyah, Iraq, and
Alim Al Ayub Ahmed
Jiujiang Institute, Jiujiang, China

Abstract
Purpose – The role of social media in the tourism industry growth cannot be ignored, because today the
internet and social media platforms are one of the most popular information channels used by potential tourists
and have become one of the main sources of online travel information. This study investigates the role of
content cues of tourism information quality provided in Elie Gasht firm’s Instagram page on enhancing
awareness of the destination brand and forming users’ destination image.
Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative research design was used to validate the hypotheses
proposed in this research. A survey was deployed using the convenience method among 187 users of Elie
Gesht’s Instagram page to test the theoretical model. The structural relationships in the research were
examined using the partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings – The findings of the present research indicated that the content cues of the quality of information
provided by the firm have a positive effect on enhancing destination brand awareness and in turn improve
affective image and cognitive image. Eventually, the content cues of the quality of information provided by the
firm impact the formation of a conative image through the affective and cognitive image of the destination.
Practical implications – Pragmatically, the findings of this study urge policymakers of tourism companies,
managers and destination marketers to take into account the special role of the firm’s social media in enhancing
destination brand awareness, which in turn promotes destination brand image. Therefore, providing empirical
evidence on what leads to the promotion of destination brand awareness and different types of image formation
of the destination due to information content quality provided by the firm on social media, provides managerial
insights for corporate marketers and tourism destinations.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of quality of tourism
information content presented in the firm’s social media by providing empirical evidence on enhancing
destination brand awareness and destination image formation. It also helps firm managers and planners build
their marketing strategies to attract more customers through social media.
Keywords Quality of information content, Destination brand awareness, Destination brand image,
Social media, Tourism
Paper type Research paper

Introduction Kybernetes
Nowadays, tourism has changed to a global and industrial topic that accounts for a large part © Emerald Publishing Limited
0368-492X
of the annual income of countries and is one of the main areas to move the economic cycle of DOI 10.1108/K-09-2021-0931
K countries (G
omez-Vega and Picazo-Tadeo, 2019). The role of social media in the tourism
industry growth cannot be ignored, because today the internet and social media platforms are
one of the most popular information channels used by potential tourists and have become one
of the main sources of online travel information (Chu and Kim, 2018; Sung et al., 2018; Wang
et al., 2015). In the tourism industry, these media have a huge impact on how people search
and share information and even make decisions about tourist destinations. Hence, these
media are considered as an important source of tourism information (Chu et al., 2020) that
have changed the way to search, find, read and process information about tourism providers
and their destination (Kim et al., 2017).
Tourists (user-generated contents (UGCs)) and firms (firm-generated content (FGC)) can
now generate, consume and distribute information about tourism destinations using social
media (Narangajavana et al., 2017). Tourists can use their smartphones to search for new
sources of information created by both tourists and companies, which can assist them in
making decisions about which tourist destination to visit (Xiang et al., 2015).
Tourists-generated content, known as sincerer and reliable information (Chen et al., 2013),
is generally created by tourists with motivations such as self-expression, socialization,
prestige and status, and indirectly influences tourism destination brand-related opinions
(Yang and Lai, 2010; Ye et al., 2011). While the firm-generated content directly provides
information and guidance about the tourist destination to the tourists, which is in line with
goals such as improving the awareness or destination brand reputation (Barreda et al., 2015)
and the development of identity and the formation of destination brand image (Lim
et al., 2012).
Providing quality information by companies from tourism destinations directly helps to
create awareness of a tourist destination and increases the customer’s ability to recognize and
recall the destination when presenting a cue (Barreda et al., 2015). For example, “When people
are asked about their thoughts when thinking of a ski destination?” Their answers provide a
basic understanding of ski destination awareness. When the firm’s social media is properly
designed and implemented, it creates opportunities for travel companies and tourism
destinations to build a strong destination awareness. A high level of destination awareness
(recall and recognition) can significantly contribute to the formation of other elements such as
destination image (Chang, 2013; Stojanovic et al., 2018).
In addition to the importance of the information quality provided by the firm on
destination awareness, the tourism literature has shown that information quality plays an
important role in shaping the image of the tourist destination (Ahadi et al., 2020; Kim et al.,
2017; Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020) and subsequently behavioral intentions (Choi et al., 2018;
Stojanovic et al., 2018). In other words, tourists who form a favorable destination image are
more likely to intend to visit it or recommend it to others (Molinillo et al., 2018).
Since people often have limited knowledge about destinations they have not yet visited
(Jeong et al., 2012), they widely rely on reliable information sources to form a destination
image (Beerli and Martin, 2004). Thus, companies strive to build, promote and maintain an
image of the destination based on the information distributed through social media (Mariani
et al., 2016; Molinillo et al., 2018). As a result, it is very important to understand the effect of the
quality of information provided by the firm on the process of forming awareness and
destination image through the firm’s social media.
Therefore, the knowledge gap in the present study points to the lack of empirical research
on how the quality of information content provided by tourism companies in social networks
affects the promotion of awareness and the formation of an image of the destination. In order
to fill the mentioned gap, the present study investigates the effect of information content
quality provided by the firm on raising awareness and shaping the destination brand image.
In summary, the aim of the present study is to add to the quality of information content
literature provided by the firm and its impact on branding a tourist destination. Finally, this
study provides valuable insights for some tourism practitioners who are not yet convinced of Generating
using social media to influence their target markets, by examining the impact of the destination
information content quality provided by popular social media, Instagram, on raising
awareness and shaping an image of the destination brand.
brand
awareness
Theoretical background
The role of social media in tourism
Technological advances and the introduction of new connection methods have significantly
changed the consumer behavior of tourism (Sotiriadis, 2016). Social media is one of the most
effective marketing tools for companies active in the field of tourism services; the tool by which
companies seek to better connect with customers (Dedeo glu et al., 2020). At the same time, these
media have become the first choice of tourists to search for information about tourism providers
and destinations (Dedeo glu et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2017; Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020). Over the past
two decades, scientists and researchers have shown an increasing interest in the growing role of
social media in tourism, and this has become an interesting research topic (Munar and Jacobsen,
2014; Narangajavana et al., 2017; Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014). The literature shows that social
media platforms play an important role in many tourism topics, especially in the areas of
consumer behavior (information seeking and decision-making), marketing and communication/
interaction with tourism consumers, and management of business operations and processes
(Bilgihan et al., 2016; Law et al., 2014; Sotiriadis, 2016).
It should be noted that there is no universal definition of social media. Chan and Guillet
(2011) define social media based on the suggestions of Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) and Xiang
and Gretzel (2010) as a group of Internet-based applications that exist on the Web2.0 platform
and enable the internet users from all over the world to interact, communicate, and share
ideas, content, thoughts, experiences, perspectives, information and relationships.
The role of social media in the tourism sector is crucial because tourism is an information-
intensive industry that heavily relies on electronic systems (i.e. the Internet) to distribute its
products in the market and communicate with customers (Wang et al., 2002). In addition,
because tourism-related products and services are relatively expensive and are described as
high-involvement, travelers often try to gather and review a lot of travel information for their
decision-making processes (Leung et al., 2013). Thus, many companies operating in the tourism
industry have launched or participated in various social media channels to communicate with
travelers and provide them with different information (Bowen and Whalen, 2017). According to
Dellarocas (2003), social media provides companies with unprecedented opportunities to
understand and respond to their customers. Particularly in the tourism industry, social media
has become one of the most prominent components of destination management organizations’
marketing strategy (Hays et al., 2013). By analyzing opinions on online websites and social
media, travel industry companies can better understand customers’ preferences for services
and products offered by companies (Leung et al., 2013). In addition, social media is now
changing the decision-making processes of tourism consumers (Hudson and Thal, 2013).
Despite the importance of the quality of tourism information on social media found in the
literature, there is no understanding of the quality of tourism information content provided
by the firm’s social media in promoting destination brand awareness and the formation of
different types of destination brand image. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to
investigate the effect of the quality of tourism information content provided by firms in social
media on raising awareness and forming an image of the destination brand.

Quality of tourism information content

Information has been considered as an influential factor in the tourism industry (Jadhav and
Mundhe, 2011). This is because it allows tourism destination management organizations and
K businesses operating in it to reach potential tourists and turn them into real tourists (Kullada
and Michelle Kurniadjie, 2021). Features such as the intangible nature of the tourism
industry, the high cost and high involvement of tourism-related products and services have
made the industry highly dependent on information (Choi et al., 2018). The only way to clarify
the intangible things is to provide information about it. Therefore, it is important to know
what potential tourists are looking for when searching for information through firm-
generated content on websites, apps or social media.
The quality of information in the online environment has been extensively investigated in
previous research (Abedi et al., 2019). The results showed that the quality of information is
one of the main factors affecting the promotion of awareness and the formation of the tourist
image of the destination brand and can make a better decision to choose a tourist destination
through quality information (Barreda et al., 2015; Kim et al., 2017; Kullada and Michelle
Kurniadjie, 2021; Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020).
Information quality has been defined extensively in previous research. Hilligoss and Rieh
(2008) defined information quality as “user mental judgment of goodness and usefulness of
information.” Taylor and Taylor (1986) defined information quality as “the value of the
information has in relation to be purposed at hand.” Wang and Strong (1996) defined
information quality as “fitness of use.” Eppler (2006) defined information quality as “the
degree to which the information meets the expectations of the user and the degree to which
the information meets the requirements of the particular activity in which the user is
engaged.”
Nevertheless, these definitions of information quality and its dimensions are very suitable
for studies on information system users, but we believe that in this study, instead of the
perspective of information system users, it is necessary to focus on the definition and
dimensions of information quality that emphasize the perspective of tourists. Therefore, we
pay attention to the literature on information quality from the perspective of tourists who
evaluate the quality of information to decide on the choice of tourist destination. For example,
Chung and Koo (2015) considered the information reliability, enjoyment, complexity, effort
and perceived values important in seeking travel information. In addition, Barreda et al.
(2015) defined the quality of information provided by the tourism destination brand on online
social networks as follows: The level at which the destination brand provides the reliable,
updated, credible and rich information that users are looking for. Finally, Rodr
ıguez et al.
(2020) in a study introduced the dimensions of the quality of tourism information provided in
the social network of Facebook: value-added, interestingness, completeness, timeliness,
relevance and the amount of information. According to Kim et al. (2017), further research is
needed to examine the impact of information quality on destination image formation in other
social media platforms (e.g. social networks) from other countries. Hence, this study adapts
the dimensions of the quality of information content provided by the firm in the social
network of Instagram based on content cues from Chaiken’s heuristic-systematic processing
model (1980) and the quality of the information content provided by the firm is defined as the
level of value-added, relevant, timely, complete and interesting information about tourism
destinations that the firm provides to tourists on the social media in which it operates.
Value-addedness refers to the degree to which the content of tourism information content
is beneficial to tourists and they gain advantages by using it (Kim et al., 2017; Filieri and
McLeay, 2014). If tourists realize the value of tourism information provided on the firm’s
social media, they receive and then process the information and use it when they intend to
visit that tourist destination (Ahadi et al., 2020). Filieri and McLeay (2014) and Kim et al. (2017)
found in their research that there is a positive relationship between the value-added of
information and information processing by tourists, which leads to the adoption of online
sites content.
 The degree to which knowledge is relevant to a given activity is referred to as relevancy. Generating
As a result, the content of tourism information offered on the firm’s social media is relevant to destination
the information about tourist sites that consumers wish to visit (Kim et al., 2017). One of the
main purposes that tourists visit a tourism related page on social media is to obtain tourism
brand
information related to their travel destination. If social media content provides tourists with awareness
relevant information, they process the information to form awareness and image of the
destination. Providing relevant information to tourists helps social media users to avoid
looking for additional information about their trip and it finally helps them to form the image
of their intended destination (Frias et al., 2008). In addition, there is a positive relationship
between information relevance and adoption of information from online sites (Filieri and
McLeay, 2014).
Timeliness refers to the degree to which the content of tourism information that is
provided by the firm’s social media is current and sufficiently up-to-date (Kim et al., 2017;
Filieri and McLeay, 2014). Numerous studies show that timeliness of information on social
media affects the processing, adoption and behavior of users in choosing products or
services. According to Chung and Han (2017), the timeliness of information has a positive
relationship with users’ perceived benefit of information in online browsers. Filieri and
McLeay (2014) have shown that there is a positive relationship between the timeliness of
information and the adoption of passenger information from online sites. In addition, Xie et al.
(2016) in their research concluded that the timeliness of information on the online site is an
important factor that has attracted the attention of the audience on the TripAdvisor site.
Completeness refers to the degree of tourism information content provided by the firm’s
social media about the destination for which the information has sufficient breadth, depth
and scope (Filieri and McLeay, 2014). A wider and more accurate range of information makes
users more likely to store and process information (Kim et al., 2017).
Finally, interestingness refers to the degree to which the tourism information content
provided by the firm’s social media about the destination is considered interesting by users
(Kim et al., 2017). Chen et al. (2014) have empirically shown that the interestingness content in
travel blogs has a positive effect on the intention to visit a tourist destination. Regarding the
formation of the image of the destination, interesting posts on the social media page will
encourage users to process the information and imagine what they will do using this
information (cognitive image formation) and consider the feeling they will have after doing
activities using the information in the social media (affective image formation).

The destination brand awareness on social media

Increasing number of similar products and services in the field of tourism has caused tourism
destinations to increase their branding activities to be able to differentiate their products and
services from other competitors’ tourism destinations (Ampountolas, 2019). The increase in
the number of tourism destination brands has made conscious decision-making processes
more difficult for tourists (Dedeoglu et al., 2020). Hence, it is essential to focus on brand
awareness. Brand awareness is defined as “the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or
recall that a brand is a member of a certain product category” (Aaker, 1991, p. 61). Brand
awareness consists of brand recall and recognition; the recall indicates the ability of
customers to remember the brand name, while recognition refers to the ability of customers to
identify the brand in the presence of the brand cue (Dabbous and Barakat, 2020). Brand
awareness is the most important and fundamental constraint in any brand-related search and
directly affects the consumers’ purchasing decision (Kapferer, 2008). In addition, brand
awareness in online social networks is distinguished in terms of intensity and extent.
Intensity of brand awareness shows how consumers effortlessly remember a particular
brand through social media. Extent of brand awareness refers to the possibility of acquiring
K and consuming brand services and products through the utilization of social networks,
especially when the brand appears in the minds of consumers (Barreda et al., 2015).
Brand awareness not only increases the destination potential to be more preferred than
other unknown destinations (Kladou and Kehagias, 2014), but also increases the destination
potential to be chosen among other destination brands of competitor (Barreda et al., 2015;
Dabbous and Barakat, 2020). Creating and sustaining destination brand awareness is
important because it provides optimistic information and generates positive emotions that
increase the possibility to buy the brand offered products (Baldauf et al., 2003). Previous
studies have shown that content generated through social media can have a vital impact on
destination brand awareness (Aluri et al., 2015; Aydın, 2016; Barreda et al., 2015; Kim and
Park, 2017; Moro and Rita, 2018; Park et al., 2009; Sigala, 2018). Moreover, tourists can be
particularly influenced by social media content when comparing destination brands and
making the final decision to buy a trip (Kim and Chae, 2018; Morosan and Bowen, 2018;
Sotiriadis, 2017). The study explains the destination brand awareness that arises from the
quality of the information content provided by the firm on social media as “The degree to
which users recognize or recall the destination brand through the quality of the information
content provided by the firm’s social media” and examines its effect on the formation of an
image of the destination.

Destination brand image

One of the most popular topics in tourism literature, which has been studied since the early
1970s, is the destination image. It plays an important role in influencing the intention and
decision of tourists to visit a destination (Al-Kwifi, 2015; Satyarini et al., 2017; Ghorbanzadeh
et al., 2021). From a tourist perspective, travel and shopping activities involve high risks and
uncertainty, and the role of information is to reduce these risks. Thus, it was found that 45%
of tourists use social networks to search for travel ideas (Fotis et al., 2012). The information
that tourists obtain about the destination through social networks creates a destination
image, the quality of the information obtained influences their decision-making, and tourists
form their expectations about the destination. This process is also known as preconception
(Wijaya et al., 2017) and the preconception becomes a standard when tourists evaluate
their trips.
Existing studies have defined the destination image in different ways. According to
Gallarza et al. (2002) and Zhang et al. (2014) who conducted a comprehensive review of the
literature on the definition of brand image, the destination image can be defined as a set of
impressions, perceptions, feelings and beliefs that people have about the destination. In the
literature, there have been various approaches to conceptualize the destination image.
Echtner and Ritchie (1991) highlighted the three-continuum-component approach, which
includes the attribute-holistic, functional-psychological, and common-unique. Gartner (1994)
conceptualized the destination image consisting of cognitive, affective, and conative
components (Ghorbanzadeh et al., 2019). Later, many studies on the destination image have
shown that image of destination should be considered a combination of cognitive (e.g.
knowledge and ideas) and affective (e.g. feelings) aspects (Afshardoost and Eshaghi, 2020;
Woosnam et al., 2020). Baloglu and McCleary (1999) presented a generalized framework for
the formation of destination image that includes perceptual/cognitive evaluation, affective
evaluation, and general image (e.g. conative), which is the result of the interaction of both
cognitive images and affective images (Tseng et al., 2015). The model is generally accepted as
the initial theoretical framework of the destination image by subsequent studies (e.g. Chew
and Jahari, 2014; Kim et al., 2017; Woosnam et al., 2020). The cognitive component of a
destination image refers to a person’s beliefs and knowledge about a destination and its
characteristics, which together help to create a mental picture of the place (Baloglu and
McCleary, 1999; Pike, 2002). The affective component describes the destination image, the Generating
person’s affective reactions and feelings towards a destination (Baloglu and Brinberg, 1997; destination
King et al., 2015). The feeling that is formed in the mind of a tourist by reading information or
seeing pictures of the environment of that destination, restaurants, local food, hotel
brand
environment and entertainment venues creates a cognitive and affective image. Finally, the awareness
conative component of the destination image refers to the active consideration of tourists to a
destination as a potential place to travel causing or showing the tourist’s reaction to visiting a
destination (Bagozzi, 1992; Gartner, 1994). Numerous studies have shown that the destination
image includes three components: cognitive, emotional and conative in relation to each other
(Agapito et al., 2013; de la Hoz-Correa and Mu~ noz-Leiva, 2019; Khan et al., 2016). Thus,
according to Kim et al. (2017) and Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020), there is a relationship between
cognitive, affective and conative images in social media pages in the field of tourism. The first
cognition that users gain from the destination of their trip by using information on social
media pages causes the formation of the cognitive destination image. For example, people use
video content posted on a social media website to find out what to do in that destination, then
visualize how they will feel in the future by doing these activities and finally, the two
cognitive and affective images that may be formed may affect their actual behavior from the
destination that are all based on the content of the information posted on the social
media page.

Hypotheses development and conceptual model

The information content quality can be defined by tourists’ perception of value-added,
relevant, timely, complete and interesting information about brands of tourism destinations
presented on the firm’s social media pages (Kim et al., 2017). Previous studies have
empirically demonstrated that the use of social media can enhance brand awareness
(Stojanovic et al., 2018; Barreda et al., 2015). Social media users are daily exposed to the
content of tourist destinations that they share with their friends (photos, videos, blogs,
comments, etc.), which has a significant impact on the destination brand awareness (Hutter
et al., 2013; Halkias, 2015). Although firm-generated content compared to user-generated
content, which may be positive or negative, is always positive, some researchers believe that
both types of content increase brand awareness and help them make purchasing decisions
(Barreda et al., 2015; Dabbous and Barakat, 2020; Kumar et al., 2016). Barreda et al. (2015), in a
study of the travel industry, found that the quality of content published by companies on
social media affects people’s brand awareness level over time and allows them to recognize
and recall brands. In addition, Dabbous and Barakat (2020) showed that the quality of content
presented by brands on social networks has a positive effect on consumer awareness of the
brand and leads to their intention to buy offline. Therefore, we claim that if the content of
information provided by the firm about tourism destination brands on social media is of high
quality, it will increase the awareness of the destination brand. Therefore, the following
hypothesis, which links the quality of information content and destination brand awareness,
is presented as follows:
H1. The quality of information content has a positive effect on the destination brand
awareness.
Numerous studies have shown that the quality of information provided by the destination
social media has a positive effect on the formation of cognitive and affective image (Ahadi
et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2017; Kullada and Michelle Kurniadjie, 2021; Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020).
Ahadi et al. (2020) showed that the relevance, timeliness and completeness of published
information about tourism destinations and their travel facilities on social media,
respectively, have the strongest effects on the formation of a cognitive image of tourist
K destinations in the minds of tourists. In addition, the findings of their study revealed that the
interestingness and value-added of information published about tourism destinations on
social media, have a relatively strong effect on the formation of affective image of tourism
destinations in the minds of tourists, respectively. In addition, Kim et al. (2017) in a study
examined the relationship between the quality of tourism information in the Sina Weibo
microblog and three types of cognitive, emotional and conative images. The results of their
study showed that content cues such as relevance and completeness have a positive effect on
the formation of cognitive image and value-added, interestingness and relevance have a
positive effect on the formation of affective image. Similarly, the results of the study by
Kullada and Michelle Kurniadjie (2021) confirmed that the quality of digital information plays
an important role in the process of searching for information and forming an image of the
destination in the pre -trip stage for tourists. Finally, Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020) showed that the
quality of information provided on the Facebook pages of destination management
organizations has an impact on the formation of cognitive and affective image. Hence, based
on the literature review, it can be assumed:
H2. The quality of information content has a positive effect on the cognitive destination
brand image.
H3. The quality of information content has a positive effect on the affective image of the
destination brand.
Keller (1993) states that brand awareness is essential to form an image. Studies show that
brand awareness plays an essential role in shaping the image of tourists from the tourism
destination brand (Stojanovic et al., 2018; Nikabadi et al., 2015). A well-established brand
helps the tourist form associations about it. First, the tourist recognizes that there is a tourist
destination, and then a scheme or association of meanings is created in their memory that
represents an image of the destination. This process can occur consciously and unconsciously
through the content presented on social networks. Studies support the analysis in the field of
social media (Llodra-Riera et al., 2015), because the content created or shared by other users
represents a stimulus that influences the formation of a destination image (Keller, 1993). In
fact, Bruhn et al. (2012) found that content shared on social media affects brand awareness
and, in turn, affects the brand image.
In particular, in the field of tourism, there is a positive relationship between consumer-
generated content and brand image. Barreda (2014) empirically confirms the relationship
between social media interaction on travel and brand awareness, and notes that brand
awareness positively affects image. In addition, the analysis of the relationship between
brand awareness and the cognitive and affective components of the image shows that the
information that tourists find on social networks changes the cognitive image of the
destination brand, but does not lead to a recommendation to visit the destination. Tourists
recommend a tourist destination only if the information received makes them feel positive. As
a result, affective image is considered as the most important factor in predicting tourist
behavior (Ahadi et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2017; Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020). As a result, based on the
previous studies on the effect of brand awareness on the image, the following hypotheses are
presented:
H4. Awareness of the destination brand has a positive effect on the cognitive image of the
destination brand.
H5. Awareness of the destination brand has a positive effect on the affective image of the
destination brand.
The researchers, when studying the interrelationships between the three dimensions of the
destination image, found that there is a sequential process in the construction of images of the
destination, and affective and cognitive images precede the conative image (Woosnam et al., Generating
2020). Numerous studies have shown that there are interrelationships between the cognitive, destination
affective and conative dimensions of the image of the destination formed due to the
information content quality provided by social media (Ahadi et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2017;
brand
Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020). In particular, based on the findings of Kim et al. (2017), the cognitive awareness
image of tourism destinations in the minds of tourists due to the quality of information
content provided by Sina Weibo social media, affects the formation of affective images of
destinations in their minds. Therefore, the relevance, timeliness and completeness of the
published tourist information about the tourist destinations and their travel facilities
(components of the cognitive destination image), can also affect the perception of tourists and
visitors about the interesting and value-added information and lead to the formation of a
conative image. Finally, in a study by Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020), Gartner (1994)’s model of
destination image formation in the context of tourists visiting a Facebook web page, which
was run by Almaty Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), was confirmed. Their
findings showed that cognitive image has a stronger relationship with affective image than
conative image. Hence, the indirect cognitive-affective – conative process of destination
image formation has more explanatory power than the direct cognitive-conative process.
Therefore, according to the above literature, it can be assumed:
H6. Cognitive image has a positive effect on the affective image of the destination brand.
H7. Cognitive image has a positive effect on the conative image of the destination brand.
H8. Affective image of the destination brand has a positive effect on the conative image
of the destination brand.
The conceptual model based on the hypotheses is developed as follows (Figure 1).

Methodology
Participants and procedures
A quantitative research design was used to validate the hypotheses proposed in this research.
Specifically, the data were obtained in the form of survey questionnaires consisting of a series
of questions. The questionnaire is made up of two sections. The first section included items
intended to measure quality of information content, destination brand awareness, cognitive
image, affective image, and conative image using seven-point Likert scales. The second
section captured respondents’ demographic information. A cover page was appended on the

Figure 1.
Hypothesized model of
quality of information
content, destination
brand awareness,
cognitive image,
affective image and
conative image
K first page of the questionnaire stating the purpose of the study. Respondents were told that
the information would not be exposed to external parties.
To make sure that the design of our questionnaire achieves a satisfactory level of
reliability and validity, a pilot test was conducted by distributing the questionnaires to 40
users of Eli Gesht’s Instagram page, to identify potential errors. A preliminary reliability test
was conducted on all the variables. The values of Cronbach’s alpha (CA) for all the variables
(quality of information content: CA 5 0.89, destination brand awareness: CA 5 0.84,
cognitive image: CA 5 0.91, affective image: CA 5 0.83, and conactive image: CA 5 0.87)
passed the threshold of 0.7, showing that all of these variables have good internal
consistency.
A convenience sampling method was employed to collect data. There are several reasons
why this survey targeted users of Eli Gasht’s social media page (Instagram). First, Eli Gasht is
one of the largest travel agencies in the Iranian tourism industry actively involved in social
networks such as Instagram. Second, according to the statistics of the Virtual Social
Networks Laboratory of the University of Tehran, Instagram is the most popular social
networks among Iranians with 47 million users and Eli Gasht Firm generates content about
tourism destinations in this network. Finally, according to Iran Tourism Organization, the
main sources of travel information are the internet homepages of travel agencies (54.8%) and
social media (47.3%). This means that social media is being used as one of the major tourism
information sources among Iranian tourists. These criteria help to ensure that our
respondents have sufficient and pertaining knowledge to participate in this research. 187
valid responses were received through an online survey platform. The average age of the
respondents was 18–35. Among the 187 participants, 112 were females and 75 were males.
The majority of the respondents (73.3%) had a bachelor’s degree. In addition, according to our
demographic survey results, about 77% of respondents had travel experience using social
media. Finally, concerning the marital status, 138 respondents are single and 49 are married.

Measures
Quality of information content. The scales to measure the five dimensions of quality of
information content (value-added, relevancy, timeliness, completeness, and interestingness)
were adapted from Filieri and McLeay (2014) and Kim et al. (2017) with 15 items. Value-added,
relevancy, timeliness, completeness, and interestingness were each measured with three
items on a seven-point Likert scale (1 – strongly disagree and 7 – strongly agree). A sample
item to measure value-added includes “The content of tourism information provided by Eli
Gasht’s Instagram page is useful for travel planning.” A sample item to measure relevancy
includes “The content of tourism information provided by Eli Gasht’s Instagram page is in
accordance with my informational needs to travel.” A sample item to measure timeliness
includes “The content of tourism information provided by Eli Gasht’s Instagram page is
continuously updated.” A sample item to measure completeness includes “The content of
tourism information provided by Eli Gasht’s Instagram page is of sufficient breadth.” A
sample item to measure interestingness includes “The content of tourism information
provided by Eli Gasht’s Instagram page is attractive.”
Destination brand awareness. A three-item scale was used to measure destination brand
awareness. It is a modified scale originated from Dabbous and Barakat (2020). Respondents
were requested to answer three questions regarding destination brand awareness on a seven-
point Likert scale. A sample item includes “It is easy to remember the tourist destination
brands I have seen on Eli Gasht’s Instagram page.”
Cognitive image of the destination brand. Cognitive image of the destination brand was
assessed using a four-item scale by Choi et al. (2018). Respondents were requested to answer
four questions regarding cognitive image of the destination brand on a seven-point Likert
scale. A sample item is “The tourism destination brands that are introduced on the firm’s Generating
Instagram page will offer interesting cultural heritage.” destination
Affective image of the destination brand. Affective image of the destination brand was
assessed using a three-item scale by Stojanovic et al. (2018). Respondents were requested to
brand
answer three questions regarding affective image of the destination brand on a seven-point awareness
Likert scale. A sample item is “the tourism destination brands that are introduced on the
firm’s Instagram page will be pleasant.”
Conative image of the destination brand. Conative image of the destination brand was
assessed using a three-item scale by Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020). Respondents were requested to
answer three questions regarding conative image of the destination brand on a seven-point
Likert scale. A sample item is “I would visit the tourist destination brands I viewed on the firm
Instagram page.”

Analysis and model testing

We apply partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the research
model using Smart PLS 3.2.8 PLS-SEM can be especially useful when there is a complex
model with many variables and indicators (Hair et al., 2014). Considering the number of
constructs in this research model, together with the sample size, we believe PLS-SEM is a
better alternative for this research (Hair et al., 2011). The analysis involves separate
assessments of the measurement model and structural model.

Measurement model assessment

In order to evaluate reflective measurement models, we examined the factor loadings,
composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE 5 convergent validity) and
discriminant validity. First, the measurement model was tested for convergent validity,
which was assessed through factor loadings, CR and AVE (Hair et al., 2013). Table 1 shows
that all item loadings exceeded the recommended value of 0.6 (Chin et al., 2008). CR and
Cronbach’s α values, which depict the degree to which the construct indicators indicate the
latent construct, exceeded the recommended value of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2013), while AVE, which
reflects the overall variance in the indicators accounted for by the latent construct, exceeded
the recommended value of 0.5 (Hair et al., 2013).
We also run one higher-order reflective models testing second-order structures (Ringle et al.,
2012). The quality of information content is composed of five first-order latent variables (i.e.
value-added, relevancy, timeliness, completeness and interestingness). Following the repeated
indicators approach to estimate higher-order constructs with PLS (Ringle et al., 2012), the
loadings of the first order latent variables on the second-order factor exceeded 0.70, indicating
that all loadings are significant, providing evidence of reliable measures (see Table 2).
Discriminant validity refers to the extent to which the measures are not a reflection of
some other variables and it is indicated by low correlations between the measure of interest
and the measures of other constructs. Table 3 shows that the square root of the AVE
(diagonal values) of each construct is larger than its corresponding correlation coefficients,
pointing towards adequate discriminant validity (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The
measurement model showed adequate convergent validity and discriminant validity.
Thus, we proceed with the structural model evaluation using one higher-order constructs to
test the hypotheses.

Structural model assessment

This research used SmartPLS3.2.8 to test the structural model and hypotheses. A
bootstrapping procedure was conducted, with 5,000 iterations, to examine the statistical
K Construct name Items Loading α CR AVE

Value-added V1 0.84 0.74 0.85 0.67

V2 0.90
V3 0.69
Relevancy R1 0.83 0.74 0.85 0.66
R2 0.78
R3 0.82
Timeliness T1 0.90 0.85 0.91 0.77
T2 0.87
T3 0.86
Completeness C1 0.77 0.81 0.89 0.73
C2 0.88
C3 0.89
Interestingness I1 0.85 0.80 0.88 0.72
I2 0.90
I3 0.78
Destination brand awareness DBA1 0.84 0.75 0.86 0.67
DBA2 0.84
DBA3 0.77
Cognitive image CI1 0.78 0.86 0.91 0.71
CI2 0.84
CI3 0.92
CI4 0.82
Affective image AI1 0.86 0.79 0.87 0.70
AI2 0.79
AI3 0.85
Table 1. Conative image CoI1 0.86 0.80 0.88 0.72
Validity and reliability CoI2 0.92
of constructs CoI3 0.75

Construct name Items Loading α CR AVE

Quality of information content QIC 0.91 0.92 0.61

Value-added V 0.70
Table 2. Relevancy R 0.84
Hierarchical models for Timeliness T 0.81
the second-order Completeness C 0.72
constructs Interestingness I 0.82

1 2 3 4 5

1. Quality of information content 0.78

2. Destination brand awareness 0.58 0.82
Table 3. 3. Cognitive image 0.43 0.72 0.84
Correlations between 4. Affective image 0.55 0.59 0.62 0.83
constructs 5. Conative image 0.56 0.66 0.66 0.65 0.85

significance of the weights of sub-constructs and the path coefficients (Chin et al., 2008).
As PLS does not generate overall goodness-of-fit (GoF) indices, it is the primary way to
evaluate the explanatory power of the model. However, Tenenhaus et al. (2005) presented
another diagnostic tool to assess the model fit, known as the GoF index. The GoF measure Generating
uses the geometric mean of the average communality and the average (for endogenous destination
constructs) (Ali et al., 2018). Wetzels et al. (2009) reported these cut-off values for assessing the
results of the GoF analysis: GoFsmall 0/01, GoFmedium 0/25 and GoFlarge 0/36. For the
brand
model used in this study, a GoF value of 0.58 was calculated, indicating a good model fit. awareness
Following the measurement model and GoF, the hypothesized relationships in the
structural model were tested. Figure 2 shows the results of the analysis. The corrected R2 in
Figure 2 refers to the explanatory power of the predictor variable(s) on the respective
construct. The quality of information content explains 49.3, 60.4, and 50.1% of changes in
destination brand awareness, cognitive image, and affective image, respectively. In addition,
destination brand awareness explains 60.4 and 50.1% of changes in cognitive image, and
affective image, respectively. Finally, cognitive image, and affective image explain 54.1% of
changes in conative image. Regarding model validity, Chin et al. (2008) classified the
endogenous latent variables as substantial, moderate or weak, based on the R2 values of 0.67,
0.33, or 0.19, respectively. Accordingly, destination brand awareness (R2 5 0.493) and
affective image (R2 5 0.501) are moderate. While the structures of the cognitive image
(R2 5 0.604) and cognitive image (R2 5 0.541) are relatively substantial.
Besides the size of R2, the researchers employed the predictive sample reuse technique (Q2)
as a criterion for predictive relevance (Chin et al., 2008). Based on the blindfolding procedure,
Q2 shows how well the collected data can be reconstructed empirically with the help of the
model and the PLS parameters. For this research, the researchers obtained Q2 using cross-
validated redundancy procedures, as suggested by Chin et al. (2008). A Q2 greater than
0 means the model has predictive relevance, whereas a Q2 less than 0 means the model lacks

Figure 2.
Structural model
results

Endogenous latent constructs R2 Q2

Destination brand awareness 0.493 0.312

Cognitive image 0.604 0.401 Table 4.
Affective image 0.501 0.329 Results of R2 and Q2
Conative image 0.541 0.361 values
K predictive relevance. As shown in Table 4, Q2 for destination brand awareness, cognitive
image, affective image, and conative image are 0.312, 0.401, 0.329, and 0.361, respectively,
indicating acceptable predictive relevance. Furthermore, standardized root mean square
residual (SRMR) and normal fit index (NFI) were used for checking the approximate fit
indices. The results revealed a SRMR of 0.067, which was lower than the recommended value
of 0.8. The NFI was obtained as 0.914 being a little more than the proposed minimum level of
0.9 (Nitzl et al., 2016). It could be concluded that the analysis of these data have relatively
vigorous results and inferences.
The eight hypotheses presented in this research were tested using the PLS approach. The
path significance of each hypothesized association in the research model was examined. In
this research, a two-tailed t-test was used because the independent variables may either show
a positive effect or a negative effect on the dependent variables (Helm et al., 2010). According
to the two-tailed t-test (df 5 186), the 0.05 significance level, or p < 0.05, requires a t-value >
1.96, and the 0.01 significance level, or p < 0.01, requires a t-value > 2.63. The 0.001
significance level, or p < 0.001, requires the corresponding t-value > 3.40.
Table 5 shows the path coefficients with all the significant paths highlighted with
asterisks. All of the structural paths were found to be statistically significant in the
research model.

Discussion and conclusion

The study highlights the impact of the quality of tourism information content provided by the
firm on social media in promoting destination brand awareness and forming the destination
image. The results show that the quality of tourism information content presented in the
firm’s social media is positively related to raising awareness of the destination brand and
different types of destination image. According to the results of our demographic survey,
about 77% of respondents had travel experience using social media, which indicates that
tourists used social media as an effective source to obtain tourism information. In the
following, we discuss the research findings in terms of the impact of the quality of tourism
information content on promoting destination brand awareness and the formation of the
destination image.
The results of the first hypothesis show that the quality of tourism information content
presented in the firm’s social media is positively related to the destination brand awareness.
The result is consistent with the findings of Barreda et al. (2015) which show that the more
reliable, rich, credible and updated information consumers receive, the more likely they are to
recognize and recall the brand name using online trip-related social networks. As a result, it
can be argued that when users perceive the quality of information content related to tourism
destinations presented on Eligasht Firm’s Instagram page as high-quality information, they

Hypotheses Path Path coefficient Standard error t-Statistics Decision

H1 QIC→DBA 0.702 0.043 16.31** Supported

H2 QIC → CI 0.393 0.073 5.40** Supported
H3 QIC → AI 0.410 0.065 6.34** Supported
H4 DBA → CI 0.449 0.084 5.32** Supported
H5 DBA → AI 0.148 0.072 2.03* Supported
H6 CI → AI 0.222 0.061 2.09* Supported
H7 CI → CoI 0.428 0.056 7.62** Supported
Table 5. H8 AI → CoI 0.390 0.055 6.92** Supported
Hypothesis testing Note(s): *p < 0.01, **p < 0.001
are more likely to develop mental awareness of the destination brand, which aids in their Generating
recognition and recall. Findings show that the quality of information content provided by destination
firm’s social media has a positive effect on the formation of users’ cognitive and affective
image from tourism destinations (second and third hypotheses). This result is consistent with
brand
the findings of Kim et al. (2017) and Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020) who showed that the quality of awareness
tourism information on social media has a positive relationship with the formation of
cognitive and affective image of the destination and tourists use social media as an effective
source to obtain tourism information. Therefore, it can be argued that when users perceive the
information content quality presented on the firm’s social media as quality content, in
addition to the correct beliefs that they form in their minds about tourism destinations and
travel facilities (cognitive image), they form positive emotions and reactions in their minds by
reading information or seeing pictures of the destination environment, restaurants, local food,
hotel environment and entertainment venues (affective image). Also, the analysis of the
relationship between the destination brand awareness and the cognitive and affective
components of the image shows that the information content that users access in the firm’s
social media leads to a change in the cognitive image of the destination brand and in turn
leads to the recommendation to visit the destination and the intention to visit the destination
(Hypothesis 4). The information content received not only causes the formation and change of
the cognitive image, but also creates a positive feeling towards the tourist destinations, which
leads to desirable conative reactions (Hypothesis 5). As a result, the affective image along
with the cognitive image is considered the most important factor in predicting consumer
behavior. The results obtained from the fourth and fifth hypotheses are consistent with the
study of Stojanovi
c et al. (2018). Findings indicate that the cognitive image created from
tourism destinations in the minds of users affects the formation of an affective image of the
destination in their minds (Hypothesis 6), which is consistent with the research of Kim et al.
(2017). Therefore, the relevance, timeliness and completeness of tourism information
published by the firm on tourism destinations and their travel facilities (cognitive
components of the image of the destination), can affect the perception of tourists and
visitors of this information about the interestingness and value-added of information
(affective components of the destination image). Finally, Gartner (1994)’s model of destination
image formation was confirmed by analyzing our experimental data on tourists visiting the
Eligasht firm’s Instagram page. This result emphasizes that the motivations of tourists, such
as the intention to visit or recommend a destination to others, are higher when they learn
many features of the tourist attractions at the destination (cognitive image) and have pleasant
feelings about the destination (affective image) (hypotheses 7 and 8). In addition, our results
show that cognitive image is more related to conative image than affective image. This means
that in general, the indirect process of cognitive-affective- conative image formation from the
destination can be explained more than the direct process of cognitive-conative image
formation because one develops different intentions for their own behaviors not only based
on cognitive factors but also based on affective factors. This result shows that understanding
the role of different aspects of information content in the firm’s social media on both cognitive
and affective images is essential to provide tourists with effective tourism information on
social media. The results obtained from the seventh and eighth hypotheses are consistent
with the study of Kim et al. (2017) and Rodr
ıguez et al. (2020).

Theoretical applications
To develop an awareness of the destination brand and the building of the destination brand
image, the study gives theoretical implications that may benefit tourism marketing activists,
researchers, and corporations. The current research also links the quality of tourist
information on social media with branding and marketing strategies. In summary, this
K research contributes to tourist information by demonstrating the value of quality tourism
content cues from Chaiken’s heuristic-systematic processing model (1980). Using Chaiken’s
heuristic-systematic processing model (1980), the effect of tourism information content
quality provided by the firm’s social media on creating awareness of the destination brand
and forming tourists’ image of the destination was investigated.
The research is also one of the first to give empirical data supporting the function of
quality tourist information content published on social media in brand awareness and image
creation. Previous research has focused on the impact of DMO information quality on the
construction of a destination image (Kim et al., 2017; Rodriguez et al., 2020). Thus, the current
research adds to the existing literature in online tourist marketing, particularly the literature
on the quality of information content and its impact on brand awareness and image
development.
Finally, this study contributes to our understanding of destination image production. The
Gartner (1994) concept for building a destination’s image is fascinating in tourism research.
However, research on how social media influences destination image construction is limited.
Also, most empirical studies have focused on Western situations. On Eligasht’s Instagram
profile, we found an Instagram user’s destination image. Our findings in Iran corroborate the
following theoretical perspectives: Our results support prior studies (Kim et al., 2017;
Rodriguez et al., 2020) that affective and conative pictures are linked (Figure 1). The study
contributes to our understanding of how social media affect destination images.

Managerial applications
Tourism firms and destinations now increasingly depend on social media to attract tourists.
It is vital for firms and tourism marketers to understand what influences visitors’ behavior
when visiting and recommending a destination. As a result, offering empirical evidence on
what leads to increased destination brand awareness and image building via social media
gives managerial insights for corporate marketers and tourism destinations.
First, this research demonstrates that firms providing tourism information through social
media increase tourists’ awareness of the destination brand. In reality, many firms employ a
range of social media to provide high-quality tourism information without testing its
usefulness. An excellent marketing strategy for influencing users’ destination brand
awareness is to provide high-quality content on well-designed social media. Marketers must
thus concentrate on producing high-quality content.
Second, the research validates the impact of information quality on prospective travelers’
cognitive and affective destination images. Marketers are recommended to give relevant
tourism information on their social media pages. This research reveals that irrelevant content
on these pages has the opposite impact and that visual and specious appeal does not boost the
tourist’s accurate information about the travel destination and its facilities. An attractive,
interesting, and value-added appearance and content are required to create a desired affective
image. These goals are achieved through providing engaging video and audio content for the
firm’s social media channels. For popular social media, paying content creators to provide
enjoyable (visual, phonetic, etc.) and helpful material (which speeds up decision-making and
trip selection) might help managers and marketers. Its timeliness was deemed a key feature of
visitor information (0.817). That regularly updated information helps tourists make better
travel choices and highlights the source of information as a reliable source reflecting current
changes, and these findings show tourist status. Recirculating outdated information on social
media generates a misleading image of the destination and reduces visitor confidence in the
information source. Marketing and sales managers should thus be more careful when
upgrading social media content and provide more time and resources if necessary.” Tourism
marketing mediums like print catalogs and websites should be upgraded as well. Finally,
completeness affects the quality of information. They also trust the source and utilize it to Generating
investigate travel possibilities and choose vacation spots if its social media content on destination
tourism is comprehensive. Visitors will be less likely to leave a tourist site if management and
marketers provide complete information on social media. Similarly, this enhances tourists’
brand
willingness to buy holiday packages from these reference sites’ operators. awareness
Finally, the research recommends that tourism managers and advocates pay close
attention to the necessity of sharing excellent information about tourism destinations on
social media. If quality information is posted on the firm’s social media accounts, tourists will
be more aware of cultural events, shopping opportunities, food and restaurant options, and
accommodation options. Also, with the advancement of information and communication
technology, promoting tourism on social media is a smart way to increase tourism and
economic development.

Limitations and future research

Despite yielding useful findings for researchers and practitioners alike, there are a few
limitations to the present study. First, this research is using cross sectional study to capture
data for a specific point in time. Cross-sectional study cannot be used to analyze tourists’
behavior over a period to time. Since this study is a cross-sectional study, the sampling was
also taken in a limited time of the year; therefore, the results depend on the tourists who
traveled during this period. A longitudinal study of information quality to observe tourist
preference of the quality that affects to their decision making of destination, would make a big
contribution for DMO. Since technology keeps developing and tourist trends and preference
also keeps changing, examining the long-term change in information quality and tourist
preference would be a challenge for further research. Second, this study did not take into
account the impact of users’ previous experience of visiting the destinations about which the
firm’s social media published information. The importance of the user experience is that the
information provided by the firm may form a different awareness and mental image of users
who have no experience of the destination than users who have multiple experiences of the
same destination. Therefore, in future studies, it is necessary to add users’ experience of
visiting a destination as a moderating variable to the proposed research model. Third, this
study adapted the dimensions of the quality of information content provided by the firm in
the social network Instagram based on content cues from the heuristic-systematic processing
model of Chaiken (1980) and did not pay attention to the information credibility. Therefore,
future studies can use the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine the impact of
information quality and credibility on the awareness and image of the destination brand.

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Corresponding author
Davood Ghorbanzadeh can be contacted at: daxygh@yahoo.com

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