Exploring the dimensions of online destination brand experience: Spanish and North American tourists' perspectives

Tourism Management Perspectives 31 (2019) 348–360

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Exploring the dimensions of online destination brand experience: Spanish and North American tourists' perspectives

T

Jano Jiménez-Barretoa, , Erose Sthapitb, Natalia Rubioa, Sara Campoa ⁎

a b

Department of Finance and Marketing Research, Business Studies, College of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Department of Marketing, University of Vaasa, Finland

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Keywords: Online destination brand experience Destination marketing organizations Official destination platforms Website Social media

As the use of online platforms to search for information about tourist destinations grows, so does the need for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to offer positive online destination brand (ODB) experiences. Two studies were conducted online to explore the central elements of a positive ODB experience with four official destination platforms (the website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter). Based on a photo-elicitation technique, the grounded theory approach, and data triangulation, this study identified six dimensions of a positive ODB experience: sensory, affective, behavioral, intellectual, interactive, and social. Thus, it extends the four-dimensional brand experience scale created by Brakus, Schmitt, and Zarantonello (2009) and proposes two other dimensions that deepen the understanding of an ODB experience: interactive and social. The results indicate that, rather than disseminating content, DMOs should focus on generating sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences as well as fostering person-to-person connection and enabling users to create content on destination platforms.

1. Introduction On the demand side of today's experiential marketplace, tourists spend an ample amount of time in virtual environments searching for information before they make purchase decisions. On the supply side, the continued development of information and communication technologies places destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in a highly competitive scenario in which increasingly creative strategies are needed to differentiate destinations. For this purpose, current brand management perspectives highlight the importance of providing a positive brand experience to consumers when they encounter brands (e.g., through physical stores, advertisement campaigns, or brands' websites or social media platforms; Brakus et al., 2009). A favorable brand experience is an important way to distinguish between tourist destinations and improve the quality of brand–customer relationships (Brakus et al., 2009; Iglesias, Singh, & BatistaFoguet, 2011). In online contexts, interaction with official destination platforms (e.g., the destination's official website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Weibo) allows consumers to experience destinations without physically visiting them (Li, Robinson, & Oriade, 2017). In other words, official destination platforms act as pre-visit

instruments that simulate, reproduce, share, and enable online consumption of the destination's offerings and culture (Buhalis & Law, 2008). Nevertheless, little is known about how the destination brand experience is formed when tourists navigate official destination platforms (Jiménez-Barreto, Rubio, & Campo-Martínez, 2019). Marketing literature demonstrates the importance of the brand experience and its influence on organizations' economic and relational benefits (Bleier, Harmeling, & Palmatier, 2018; Brakus et al., 2009; Carù & Cova, 2003), including consumer satisfaction (Brakus et al., 2009; Oliver, 1997), brand loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009; Reicheld, 1996), and brand associations (Brakus et al., 2009). Thus, the online brand experiences that customers have while navigating through brands' websites and social media are an emerging focus of marketing research (Bleier et al., 2018; Hollebeek, Glynn, & Brodie, 2014). However, paradoxically, even though the destination brand experience is important for understanding tourist–destination brand relationships, there is a lack of tourism research on this topic (Barnes, Mattsson, & Sorensen, 2014). In addition, there is little research on online destination brand (ODB) experiences that occur when tourists navigate official destination platforms. In the tourism context, a handful of studies have examined online experiences with destinations (Lee & Gretzel, 2012;

Corresponding author at: Department of Finance and Marketing Research, Business Studies, College of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ctra Colmenar, C/ Francisco Tomás y Valiente, N 5, Madrid ES 28049, Spain. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Jiménez-Barreto), [email protected], [email protected] (E. Sthapit), [email protected] (N. Rubio), [email protected] (S. Campo). ⁎

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.07.005 Received 17 March 2019; Received in revised form 18 June 2019; Accepted 10 July 2019 2211-9736/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Zhang, Gordon, Buhalis, & Ding, 2018), but to date, only one study has specifically analyzed ODB experiences (Jiménez-Barreto et al., 2019). The present paper suggests that, in the pre-visit phase, ODB experiences have unique features compared to other brand experiences that have been measured in previous studies. The purpose of this research is to expand the knowledge about ODB experiences, and the aim is to identify the central elements of a positive ODB experience via four official destination platforms (the brand's website, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter). To this end, the current study explores the applicability of the theoretical concept of the brand experience (Brakus et al., 2009) to the destination marketing field. There is a subtle, yet important, difference between the focus of previous research on the brand experience and that of this study: prior research has focused on replicating Brakus et al.'s (2009) four dimensions of a brand experience in new settings (e.g., Barnes et al., 2014), while this study focuses on inductively identifying the central elements of a positive ODB experience using the photo-elicitation technique, grounded theory approach, and data triangulation with a sample of tourists from Spain and North America to improve the understanding of this phenomenon. Spanish and North American tourists were chosen for this research because they characteristically use the internet intensively when making purchases for online trips. In this regard, Spanish tourists are attractive in terms of online expenditures on travel per tourist (ComScore, 2018) and North American tourists because of the continuous growth in the numbers of users in the travel-booking market (i.e., independent booking and booking through online travel agencies) (Statista, 2019).

(Zarantonello & Schmitt, 2010). Brakus et al. (2009) proposed that the brand experience has multiple dimensions based on four factors: sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual experiences. Later, Barnes et al. (2014) replicated Brakus et al.'s (2009) scale of brand experiences with tourism destinations and proposed the concept of the destination brand experience, which occurs when a person travels to a branded place and has pleasurable experiences (Hanna & Rowley, 2011). The first of the four dimensions of the brand experience—the sensory dimension—involves sensations evoked by brand-related stimuli that are perceived through the senses (Brakus et al., 2009). In the case of destinations, sensory brand experiences are based on visual, aural, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile experiences (Barnes et al., 2014), such as the sound of activity in an open-air market, the feel of a cool breeze on one's face, the flavors of food in the city, or a panoramic view of mountains or a city skyline. The second dimension—the affective dimension—involves feelings, sentiments, and emotions, such as the feeling that one is welcome in a hotel or love for a city's architecture (Barnes et al., 2014). Zarantonello and Schmitt (2010) found that respondents with the highest scores in the affective dimension are those who look for a brand experience that emotionally appeals to them. The third dimension—the behavioral dimension—includes experiences in which a visitor performs physical actions, such as walking in a park, getting a tattoo, or dancing (Brakus et al., 2009; Schmitt, 1999). The fourth dimension—the intellectual dimension—is linked to thoughts, stimulation of curiosity, and problem-solving in encounters with brand stimuli (Barnes et al., 2014). Some recent studies indicated that the destination brand experience has a positive effect on visitors' satisfaction, intention to revisit, and willingness to recommend the destination (Beckman, Kumar, & Kim, 2013; Kumar & Kaushik, 2017).

2. Literature review 2.1. The brand experience and destination brand experience A destination brand, also defined as a complex experiential brand (Barnes et al., 2014), is used as a marketing tool to represent the potential experience of tourists visiting that destination (Jiménez-Barreto et al., 2019), create positive images of tourist attractions, and meet tourists' needs (Morgan, Pritchard, & Piggott, 2003). Destination brands are created by the signaling process regarding a particular place for which there is a promotional discourse about objects, symbols, and ideas linked to benefits for tourists, such as satisfaction, mental and physical health, social status, happiness, rest, regeneration, and contentment (Watson & Kopachevsky, 1994). These brands are comprised of a set of meanings and experiences assures that a specific place has value by highlighting the elements that differentiate it from other destinations (Morgan et al., 2003). In other words, through a name, symbol, logo, word-mark, or graphic, the destination brand promises a tourism experience that is memorable and clearly associated with the destination (Ritchie & Ritchie, 1998). In the academic marketing literature, a brand experience is defined as including “specific sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses triggered by specific brand stimuli. For example, experiences may include specific feelings, not just an overall liking” (Brakus et al., 2009, p. 53). In other words, a brand experience is comprised of the internal and subjective perceptions of consumers at every moment they are in contact with the brand, including their perceptions of the brand images used in advertising, their first personal contact with the brand, or the quality of the personal treatment they receive (Alloza, 2008) as well as the perceptions they develop when they purchase from the brand, talk to others about the brand, seek out information about the brand, go to the brand's events, and so on (Ambler et al., 2002). These experiences can differ in strength and intensity (Reicheld, 1996); be positive or negative or short-lived or long-lasting (Brakus et al., 2009); and positively affect consumer satisfaction (Brakus et al., 2009; Oliver, 1997), brand loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009; Reicheld, 1996), and brand associations (Brakus et al., 2009). The brand experience is empirically distinct from other brand- and customer-related concepts, including brand attachment, brand involvement, and customer delight

2.2. From the online brand experience to the online destination brand experience Traditionally, studies have employed a multidimensional framework of the brand experience in offline contexts, such as events, advertisements, physical stores, and physical visits to a tourist destination. Researchers such as Barnes et al. (2014) applied the brand experience model, which was initially proposed for products or services, to destination branding phenomena. However, these researchers did not consider the inherent differences between goods, services, and destination consumption experiences. It is believed that destination branding is more complex than products or services because destination branding management involves multidimensional factors (e.g., natural resources, weather conditions, multiple attractions, culture, types of accommodation) that are not within the control of official promises and promotional discourse (Pike, 2005). For example, destination brands can promote locals' welcoming attitude toward tourists as a part of the destination brand experience, but destination managers have no control over locals' actual attitudes when tourists visit. In contrast, marketing managers have more control over the majority of objects, stimuli, and scenarios (e.g., the atmosphere in which products are presented or service providers' attitudes toward customers) involved in a brand experience with a product or service. As a result, the difference between the brand experience and the destination brand experience––described here in terms of the complexity experienced by consumers when they have to evaluate brands' promises and what they think will be delivered in reality (Blain, Levy & Ritchie, 2005) ––is an implicit part of the discussion about the online brand experience (i.e., products and services) and the ODB experience. This research argues that, compared to a positive online brand experience (i.e., products and services), a positive ODB experience is more dependent upon the similarity between what is displayed as a simulacrum of a destination experience on official platforms and what tourists actually experience at the destination. If tourist destinations, like 349

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brands, are seeking to differentiate themselves online, they are forced to promote themselves using sophisticated communication and interactive technologies capable of simulating the destination online using websites, social media, and virtual reality applications (Zhang et al., 2018). This means that during the pre-visit phase, online destination platforms (i.e., websites and social media) are critical elements of the simulacrum of the destination experience, which allows tourists to explore and become motivated to visit and interact with the destination (Jiménez-Barreto et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2018). The following sections discuss the influence of online brand experiences and ODB experiences on consumers' responses as well as how these two constructs have been empirically assessed through both brands' websites and social media platforms.

Until now, few studies have directly used the dimensions of the brand experience in the context of social media. To plausibly adapt the evidence concerning the influence of the brand experience to social media users, we drew upon two perspectives, albeit limited ones, in current marketing research. The first is adopted by studies that descriptively evaluate the brand experience after users navigate and come into contact with brands' social media content (Smith, 2013). The second is adopted by studies that determine the ability of the brand experience to mediate between the functional characteristics of social media and consumers' responses to and relationship with the brand (Chen et al., 2014). Both Chen et al. (2014) and Smith (2013) showed that a positive experience with a brand on its social media is expected to influence a user's attachment to the brand and its promotional content. This leads to participation with the brand via, for example, positive comments about the brand's content (Smith, 2013). Chen et al. (2014) also found that the ease of use and usefulness of social media are antecedents of the online brand experience, and they confirm the mediating role of the brand experience in the relationship between the features of a social media platform, consumers' effort during navigation, and users' responses to the brand in terms of loyalty and online recommendations. However, studies on these topics have several limitations regarding how they measure the brand experience and analyze social media platforms. For example, Smith (2013) examined only Facebook and measured only three of the four brand experience dimensions developed by Brakus et al. (2009)—the sensory, intellectual, and affective dimensions—using four items. Also, Chen et al. (2014) used only Facebook as a research unit, and although they directly measured brand experiences with 12 items adapted from Brakus et al. (2009), they did not discriminate between the four brand experience dimensions.

2.2.1. The online brand experience through brands' websites According to Voorveld, Neijens, and Smit (2009), consumers' behavioral responses to online brands are influenced by three factors: (1) the characteristics of the brand's website, (2) users' psychological states while navigating the website, and (3) users' internal responses to the website. These three factors have been employed by several studies analyzing online brand experiences via websites. First, Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou (2013) and Lee and Jeong (2014) defined the online brand experience based on users' assessments of the characteristics of a brand's website (e.g., its interactivity, amount of information, and usability). However, this conceptualization leads to measurement conflicts with other well-established constructs in the marketing field, such as online service quality, since the items used by Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou (2013) and Lee and Jeong (2014) are indistinguishable from those used to measure the quality of online services (Yang, Jun, & Peterson, 2004). Therefore, adjustments are needed to differentiate the online brand experience and quality of online services. Second, variables such as involvement, perceived interactivity, and flow status are used to evaluate users' psychological states while navigating brands' websites. The level of website involvement, which is determined based on the interest shown in a brand, directly influences users' behavioral responses to the website and the brand (Voorveld et al., 2009). A high level of perceived interactivity, defined as the psychological state of a site user during an online interaction, is linked to a favorable opinion of the website and brand (Wu, 2005). Flow refers to the mental state of a user who is totally immersed in navigating the website (Novak, Hoffman, & Yung, 2000). Some studies have indicated a direct relationship between a user's flow state and satisfaction with online purchases (Rose, Clark, Samouel, & Hair, 2012). Third, users' internal responses to brands' websites have been used to define the online brand experience. Some studies (e.g., Bleier et al., 2018; Chen, Papazafeiropoulou, Chen, Duan, & Liu, 2014; Smith, 2013) adapted Brakus et al.'s (2009) work to the online domain in order to evaluate and validate the following online brand experience dimensions: (1) sensory (i.e., online brand-related stimuli that can be perceived through the senses), (2) behavioral (i.e., bodily experiences and motor actions derived from contact with an online brand), (3) intellectual/cognitive (i.e., thoughts and imaginative stimulations evoked by the online brand), and (4) affective (i.e., the subject's emotions and feelings regarding the online brand). These studies concluded that, within the context of brand websites, a favorable online brand experience will positively affect users' trust and satisfaction with the brand (Rajaobelina, 2017) and foster purchase intentions (Bleier et al., 2018).

2.2.3. The online destination brand experience through official platforms To date, within the context of tourist destinations, only JiménezBarreto et al. (2019) have adopted some of the four brand experience dimensions (sensory and intellectual) developed by Brakus et al. (2009) to analyze official destination websites' ability to foster users' intentions to visit and recommend the destination. Nevertheless, previous studies adopting a different theoretical perspective (e.g., Lee & Gretzel, 2012; Lee, Gretzel, & Law, 2010; Zhang et al., 2018) approximated the brand experience paradigm to analyze online tourist experiences on official destination websites. First, in line with the sensory and intellectual dimensions of the brand experience, Lee et al. (2010) and Lee and Gretzel (2012) found that the visual-textual sensory stimuli of an official destination website can help stimulate users' mental processes, which may evolve into positive responses to the website and destination. Second, in line with Brakus et al.'s (2009) definition of the affective brand experience, Zhang et al. (2018) proposed a measurement of emotional experience evoked by a destination while users navigate both the destination's website and social media. In this case, the emotional experience of a destination consists of users' perceived pleasure and excitement related to connecting with a destination online. Few studies have examined the experiences tourists have with a destination while visiting its official social media platforms (Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2013). Until now, to the best of the authors' knowledge, no study other than that of Zhang et al. (2018)—who examined users' emotional experiences while navigating a destination's social media—has approximated the ODB experience perspective. Zhang et al. (2018) argued that the online destination experience on official websites and social media has three components: (1) cognitive (i.e., the actual experience of visiting an official platform), (2) emotional (i.e., users' affective responses to interacting with the destination online), and (3) behavioral (i.e., users' intentions to engage with the destination). In summary, the literature review conducted as part of this study reveals the scarcity of qualitative and quantitative studies in the tourism literature on the destination brand experience that occurs when

2.2.2. The online brand experience through brands' social media platforms Social media platforms are characterized by their ability to offer an interactive experience in real time. On these platforms, users and brands share content using available functions. The content that users create, customize, consume, and share with other users or brands through social media is referred to as user-generated content (UGC) (Boyd & Nicole, 2008). 350

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users connect with official online destination platforms (i.e., the ODB experience). As the academic marketing literature suggests, Brakus et al.'s (2009) brand experience model can amply describe the ODB experience phenomenon. However, as Andreini, Pedeliento, Zarantonello, and Solerio (2018) recently posited, brand experiences need to be analyzed as a consequence of the context in which the brand and consumers co-create brand cues (e.g., the online brand content), which can generate interactions between actual and potential consumers and the brand's platforms. The natural experience of tourism, the rapid development of online platforms on which one can search for information about destinations, and the tendency for tourists to share information about their experiences at a destination have created a scenario in which individuals consider others' experiences when deciding on a tourist destination (Volo, 2010). Consequently, it is expected that, apart from sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral experiences, other elements could emerge in encounters with official destination brand platforms. For example, users may evaluate their ODB experiences based on communication and interaction with other tourists and the destination brand on the official platforms. Based on the few empirical studies examining which ODB dimensions are involved in tourists' encounters with destination brands online, the following research questions are proposed:

platform Qualtrics. Second, data triangulation was performed using a sample with a different nationality than the sample in the first study. Triangulation is defined as an examination of the same phenomenon or research question with more than one source of data (Decrop, 1999). It has received attention in qualitative research as a way to increase the acceptance of qualitative approaches (Denzin, 1978; Rossman & Wilson, 1985). The first study in this research was conducted among Spanish participants, and the second study involved North American participants. These two countries were selected because they are attractive marketplaces for potential online tourists. Spain is one of the top five countries in Europe in terms of the total expenditure on travel online per tourist (ComScore, 2018), and the US consumers has shown continuous and positive growth in the number of users in the online travel booking market (i.e., independent booking and booking through online travel agencies) in the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, and the trend is forecasted to continue until 2023 (Statista, 2019). Among both Spanish and North American consumers, the most popular social media platforms (by number of users) are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (IAB, 2017; Statista, 2018). Thus, the researchers considered it appropriate to use online visual scenarios that contain these three social media platforms as well as the official destination website for photo-elicitation (study 1, Appendix A; study 2, Appendix B). The actual images presented were used rather than online navigation, as this approach allowed the researchers to control the stimuli that were displayed to the participants. This approach avoided non-controlled effects derived both from the platforms' diverse features (in the case of social-media platforms, for example, the possibility of posting images and comments and seeing other users' content about the destination; in the case of the official website, the possibility of contacting the destination's service providers) and from the participants' varying use of the platform in terms of time spent, individual navigation patterns, content viewed, or level of expertise with each platform (e.g., social media), among other factors. In this regard, the studies were designed to be as consistent as possible with a tourist's ODB experience. That is, being in contact with destination stimuli online using responders' devices without the interference of the physical presence of an interviewer, minimizing face-to-face interview limitations such as interviewer bias, high cost per participant, geographical restrictions and time pressure on participants (Alreck & Settle, 2004; Holbrook, Green, & Krosnick, 2003). For both studies in this research, the participants were part of a random sample acquired from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). MTurk is an online marketplace designed to allow individuals or groups to pay other individuals to complete small online tasks. Studies conducted in the fields of psychology and economy have utilized MTurk to collect quantitative and qualitative data (Shank, 2016), as have some tourism studies employing quantitative survey questions (Kirillova, Lehto, & Cai, 2017). Data collection using MTurk is considered to be at least as reliable as conventional data collection techniques, and MTurk participants feature more demographic variation than those in typical Internet samples (Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, 2011). Mturk allows researchers to verify the quality of the gathered data before paying participants, so it is possible to eliminate invalid responses and allow more individuals to participate until the researchers receive enough valid responses. In this sense, the researchers conducted a pre-pay data screening analysis of each response to ensure that only high-quality data were included. Through an online link, the researchers redirected MTurk participants to the visual scenarios and open-ended questions, which were designed on the research platform Qualtrics, where data were analyzed.

RQ1. . Are the sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual components of a brand experience present in tourists' perceptions when they are in contact with a destination brand via official online destination platforms? RQ2. . Is the ODB experience composed of more dimensions than the sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual dimensions? The next section describes a qualitative study intended to explore and better understand the formation of the ODB experience via official destination platforms. It analyzes the central elements of a positive brand experience model that can be applied to the online destination scene, mainly when users come into contact with official destination platforms. 3. Method 3.1. Methods of data collection, sampling, and triangulation Two online qualitative studies were conducted in January 2019. Both aimed to explore the central elements of a positive ODB experience based on participants' experiences when they came into contact with the official platforms of a tourist destination. Each study involved a photo-elicitation technique and data analysis performed with the grounded theory approach. Photo-elicitation is a visual qualitative method that provides added value by capturing multidimensional data based on individuals' interpretations and understandings of a given phenomenon (Barbour, 2014). The difference between conventional indepth interviews and photo-elicitation lies in the way participants respond to the symbolic representations in the images presented to them (Glaw, Inder, Kable, & Hazelton, 2017). In consumer research, photoelicitation techniques enable researchers to observe the motivations, beliefs, and emotions expressed by consumers regarding a specific topic (Coulter & Zaltman, 2000). Specifically, participants' memories are profoundly affected by a set of presented images (Harper, 2002), which enables researches to collect personalized narratives about the topic under study. Typically, participant-generated images are used to facilitate discussion during interviews, but the researcher may also provide images (Kantrowitz-Gordon & Vandermause, 2015). In both studies conducted as part of the current research, images were provided by the researchers. First, the photo-elicitation technique was conducted online, and open questions were posed to allow participants to textually describe, in their own words, their opinions, perceptions, and ideas about the ODB experience through the research

3.2. Study 1: Online destination brand experiences of Spanish participants An online scenario with visual images (i.e., the photo-elicitation technique) and an open-ended question were used to collect data. Participants were asked to view images of official destination platforms 351

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assigned by the researcher and to write vignettes describing their ODB experience through one of the platforms. The study's instructions stipulated that participants had to use a desktop or laptop browser to properly appreciate the presented stimuli. The researchers ensured that the proper device was used with a metadata tool that showed participants' operating system and screen size. All of participants used the correct device. In study 1, to minimize the possible bias resulting from previous knowledge of stimuli related to the destination, a destination that is relatively unknown to Spanish tourists—Serbia—was selected (Appendix A). Although the number of Spanish visitors to Serbia increased by 64% from 2013 to 2017, it remains one of the European destinations that is least visited by Spanish tourists (UNWTO, 2017). The study was structured into two parts. First, the participants were asked to imagine that they were going to travel to the given destination (Serbia). Second, they were presented with four static images that showed the official platforms of the given destination, asked to choose the image of the platform that offered them the best ODB experience, and asked to explain their experience in detail.

Interactive

Sensory

Central elements of a positive online destination brand (ODB) experience

Affective

Behavioral

Intellectual

Social

Fig. 1. Central elements of a positive ODB experience.

Additionally, axial coding allowed us to conclude which elements were central to generation of a positive ODB experience (Fig. 1 in the conclusion section). Tables 2 and 3 (in the results section) identify the subthemes (i.e., dimensions of an ODB experience): sensory, affective, intellectual, social, interactive, and behavioral experiences. Selective coding was performed by reading the narratives several times, reviewing the coding choices, and comparing the ideas and concepts derived from the literature (Creswell, 2007).

3.3. Study 2: Online destination brand experiences of North American participants Since study 2 involved US participants, the instructions and questions were translated from Spanish to English by two independent professionals using the double translation method. The study design mimicked that of study 1. However, another destination—a city, Barcelona, Spain (Appendix B)—was chosen to counterbalance the possible bias due to previous knowledge about the destination. The city of Barcelona is one of the most common European destinations for North American tourists to visit (UNWTO, 2017), and North Americans are the largest segment of non-European tourists in the city (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2017).

4. Results 4.1. Study 1 4.1.1. Participants in study 1 Twenty-three individuals located in Spain and enrolled in MTurk were recruited for study 1. The fee per participant was $0.95. The participants were aged 18–45 years, with an average age of 32 years. In total, 71% of the sample were males. Forty-seven percent had studied at a university, and 53% lacked a university education. Seventeen percent had visited Serbia before, while 73.2% reported very little or no knowledge about Serbia.

3.4. Data analysis and coding: Open, axial, and selective coding In terms of data analysis, both studies adopted a grounded theory design (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). A grounded theory approach is defined as a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of processes to inductively develop a theory about a phenomenon (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Based on Strauss and Corbin's (1990) study, we performed three steps for our grounded theory approach. First, we scanned the gathered data to develop a broad understanding of it. Second, we analyzed participants' responses and listed the elements that contribute to a positive ODB experience. Third, we manually performed open, axial, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The researcher who specializes in the brand experience construct was the only coder in subsequent phases. Following Saldaña's (2013) recommendations, the coding outputs of each step (i.e., open, axial, and selective coding) were discussed among the researcher team using a dialogical intersubjectivity method until consensus about the coding results was achieved (Harry, Sturges, & Klingner, 2005; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009; Sandelowski & Barroso, 2007). Table 1 illustrates how open coding was performed in this study.

4.1.2. Results of study 1 The majority of respondents reported positive ODB experiences on the official website of Serbia (12 participants), followed by Serbia's Instagram (six participants), Facebook (three participants), and Twitter (two participants). The respondents preferred the official website over other platforms because of its visually attractive images (six participants) and better organization of content, which made it easy for users to find and interpret information (10 participants). Of the destination's social media platforms, Instagram stood out because of the visual experience (i.e., high-quality images) it offered (six participants) and its facilitation of quick learning about the destination (three participants).

Table 1 Open coding (line-by-line example). Study's narratives

Participants' narratives (Extracted Examples)

Open coding (Line-by-Line Coding)

Study 1

“Serbia's Facebook allows communication with the organization itself, as well as other users that are interested in going there or those who have travelled there in the past or those who live there currently.” “Barcelona's website felt like it had the most information, and would best prepare me to visit the city. I feel it would have all the information I need, and it was organized well to find it again even while traveling”. “The reason I'd select Barcelona's Instagram is the appeal of the platform itself; Barcelona on Instagram is all about an aspirational, inspirational, tasteful, and authentic experience.”

Destination's Facebook allows communication with other users

Study 2 Study 2

352

Barcelona's website had the most information and was well-organized The destination's platform is appealing itself, and it is inspirational, tasteful, and authentic

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Table 2 Codes indicating the significance of sensory, affective, intellectual, and social online destination experiences from study 1. Open coding (Line-by-Line Coding)

Subthemes (Axial Coding)

Main themes (Selective Themes)

“User wants to visually enjoy the destination's Instagram,” “be in contact with several pictures,” “pictures help the immersion in the destination,” “Visually, it is beautiful and well-organized,” “you can have a visual idea,” “tourists want to enjoy visually,” “Destination's Twitter has an eyecatching video,” “Destination has well-taken photos.” “The section about what to do at the destination facilitates learning about Serbia; it can be fun and interesting,” “Serbian website displays pleasant pictures,” “Serbia looks as a pleasant destination on its website.” “On Serbia's website, users can filter information and go directly to relevant content that generates ideas of what to do at the destination,” “the destination information is well-structured,” “it is easy to learn quickly about important things for a trip,” “the attractive destination's content catch[es] your attention.” “The most important thing for me about a destination's Facebook online experience is the possibility to be in contact with other people's opinions about the destination,” “users can see opinions and comments created by others users,” “other tourists' comments are very useful,” “I choose Serbian Facebook because users' opinions are frequently present on this social media,” “I trust in independent users' comments on [the] destination's Facebook.”

Sensory experience

The sensory, affective, intellectual, and social dimensions are the central elements of the positive online destination brand experiences that emerge while connecting with destination platforms.

Affective experience Intellectual experience

Social experience

Facebook was valued for its multimedia richness (two participants) and because it allowed users to access other users' opinions and recommendations about the destination (two participants). Finally, Twitter (two participants) was highlighted for its range of stimuli, including pictures, short texts, and videos. By coding using the grounded theory approach (Table 2), we identified four central elements of a positive ODB experience: sensory, affective, intellectual, and social elements (Table 2). This finding can be linked to Brakus et al.'s (2009) brand experience model, which includes sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral dimensions. However,

the behavioral dimension was not identified in participants' narratives in study 1. The significance of the sensory dimension in tourists' positive ODB experiences is highlighted by quotes from the participants. One said, “The destination's Instagram included photos [that were] well-taken, whereby anyone can appreciate the beauty of the destination” (Participant 5). Another said, “I liked the destination website because its first image is about a natural landscape. I am [a] nature-lover, so the destination impacted me more on the website” (Participant 15). A different participant added, “On Twitter, the destination launches short

Table 3 Codes indicating the significance of the sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral, interactive, and social online destination experiences identified in study 2. Open coding (Line-by-Line Coding)

Subthemes (Axial Coding)

Main themes (Selective Coding)

“many people are attracted to certain tourist destinations from the look of pictures on Instagram,” “Barcelona's Facebook videos are great ways to visualize and experience the destination,” “the official website's design, links to tours, and special events,” “it shows the beautiful city scenery.” “I feel happy and pleased when I see this kind of pictures,” “As a tourist, visiting Barcelona must be definitely be fun,” “Barcelona on Instagram is all about an aspirational, inspirational, tasteful, and authentic experience,” “The social media sites focused on [the] fun activities of Barcelona,” “Barcelona's content on Instagram resonated with me the most.” “You can even hashtag search for different things to do in Barcelona and see everything,” “the website felt like it had the most information and would best prepare me to visit the city,” “I remember things by the sights of the city,” “So seeing pictures on Instagram that really capture how beautiful Barcelona is really made me think Barcelona would be great to visit.” “On Barcelona's Instagram, you're able to share so many different perspectives through pictures,” “you can post pictures of yourself,” “share content on the destination site and with your friends,” “Barcelona's Facebook allows communication with the organization itself as well as others that are interested in going there.” “Barcelona's Instagram takes it a step further as to immerse you into that location,” “I liked it, and I want to go there as soon as possible,” “it went from picture to picture as if I was taking a helicopter ride through the city,” “the city's official website where you can see both videos and pictures, on top of many other things like […] where to shop, famous restaurants, shows and entertainment playing in the city, and other things.” “But I think Barcelona's Instagram made me want to put photos of my visit online,” “it looked very enticing and interesting and made me want to also post beautiful photos,” “you can use destination's Instagram to better interact with the site.”

Sensory experience

Sensory, affective, intellectual, social, behavioral, and interactive elements are central to the positive online destination brand experiences that emerge while users connect with destination platforms.

Affective experience

Intellectual experience

Social experience

Behavioral experience

Interactive experience

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but visual attractive videos with a strong communication of the destination message to tourists” (Participant 10). Based on these quotes, the sensory experience can be described as a way through which brands, using online platforms, stimulate users' senses (Bleier et al., 2018). The participants' narratives clearly show the predominance of visual stimuli over other types of stimuli. Keywords extracted from the vignettes, such as “beauty,” “images,” and “visual,” align with the work of Schmitt (1999), who considers visuals to be pleasing stimuli that are part of the sensory appeal of consumption experiences. In line with prior studies on destination platforms, we observed that sensory experiences can be evoked through cues in multimedia content (e.g., videos, high-quality photos, and/or 360-degree applications; Tigre-Moura, Gnoth, & Deans, 2015; Perez-Vega, Taheri, Farrington, & O'Gorman, 2018). The importance of the affective dimension for a positive ODB experience was highlighted by several participants. One participant mentioned, “I saw a site section in which anyone can consult what to do at the destination; I consider this section fun and interesting for users that are looking for information about the destination” (Participant 14). Another said, “the website showed pleasant images about Serbia without saturating the home page with large texts” (Participant 17). These quotes suggest that the multimedia content on destination platforms evokes affective responses (e.g., pleasure, fun) due to the perceived emotions and imagined entertainment associated with visiting the destination. In the context of destination platforms, other studies have also observed that aesthetically appealing online content concerning a destination can inspire a user to have an emotional response to the platform and destination (Zhang et al., 2018). Several participants mentioned that they had a positive intellectual ODB experience, which involves mental processing of brand content and the creative thinking, curiosity, and intrigue evoked by the destination brand on its official platforms. One said, “While visiting the destination website, I can search for information easily because it is well-structured” (Participant 3). Another said, “The destination website is the most complete source of information here; all useful information for travel to Serbia is contained on the site. If I go from one section to another, I maintain the curiosity, so I want to know more and more” (Participant 17). These experiences can be linked to both Brakus et al.'s (2009) conceptualization of the intellectual brand experience and Jiménez-Barreto et al.’ (2019) definition of the cognitive ODB experience, which are conceptually interchangeable. Regarding the social dimension of the ODB experience, one participant wrote, “The most important thing for me about a destination's Facebook experience is the possibility to be in contact with other people's opinions about the destination” (Participant 1). The social brand experience can be linked to the concept of social presence in online environments (Bleier et al., 2018). Social presence is a psychological state in which an individual perceives him- or herself to exist within an interpersonal environment (Blascovich et al., 2002). The extent to which a platform offers a strong sense of human presence, sensibility, and contact (e.g., there is a place to immediately contact a human on the website) affects the perceived tangibility of and users' closeness with a brand online (Darke, Brady, Benedicktus, & Wilson, 2016). Regarding online destination relationships, the findings of this study indicate that the social experience is a central element of a positive ODB experience, particularly via a destination's social platforms, where users expect to communicate with the destination and other social media users.

in MTurk were recruited for study 2. The fee per participant was $1.05. The participants were aged 18–67 years, with an average age of 33 years. In total, 51% of the sample were females. Seventy percent were enrolled at a university or had studied at the university, and 30% had not attended a university. Of the participants, 18% had visited Barcelona, and 40.07% reported having very little or no knowledge about Barcelona. 4.2.2. Results of study 2 The participants reported that the best official platforms of Barcelona were its website (12 participants), Instagram (10 participants), Facebook (four participants), and Twitter (one participant). They mentioned that the website featured better-organized content and an attractive range of stimuli. Instagram was highlighted for its highquality visual experience and capability for users to interact with the multimedia content. Both Facebook and Twitter allowed users to communicate and interact with other users and destination managers. The sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral, interactive, and social dimensions were identified as central elements of a positive ODB experience. All of Brakus et al.'s (2009) brand experience dimensions were identified in the participants' narratives (Table 3). In addition, two dimensions emerged that were not observed in study 1: behavioral and interactive experiences. The next section explains these two dimensions and how they produce different findings than study 1. Behavioral experience is related to individuals' perceptions of an event pertaining to changes that involve the physical body, patterns of behavior, or lifestyle trends (Schmitt, 1999). Participants in study 2 presented brief stories that involved reminiscence about a behavioral change that occurred while they were in contact with the destination brand via its official platforms. One participant said, “I think it can be interesting to go there on a trip with friends. I saw this on Instagram. I liked it, and I want to go there as soon as possible” (Participant 24). Another reported, “I went from picture to picture as if I was taking a helicopter ride through the city. I was able to see more and visualize what Barcelona had to offer” (Participant 13). A third noted that “the website features the best tourist spots and shows that the beaches are beautiful to walk along, boating is available, shopping areas, and people that are biking to and from places. The website gives the potential tourist an idea of being there, almost as if it is a virtual tour” (Participant 20). These quotes suggest that the destination brand offers a significant behavioral experience online if users activate their motivations toward the destination online (e.g., their motivation to organize an immediate visit to the destination or follow the lifestyle associated with the destination) as a result of contact with online stimuli. This supports Schmitt's (2000) argument that a technology-mediated experience can influence and change one's motivations and lifestyle. Regarding the interactive experience, one participant wrote, “I think Barcelona's Instagram made me want to put photos of my visit online” (Participant 9). Another said, “You can use a destination's Instagram to better interact with the site. You can post pictures of yourself and share them on the site and with your friends” (Participant 16). It is reasonable to infer from both testimonials that if users believe that they are free to co-create the experience by uploading, interacting, creating, or disseminating content, this generates a sense of interactivity with the destination brand online. Mollen and Wilson (2010) and Wu (2005) define interactivity with online platforms as the level at which an interface mediates communication, which is bidirectional, controllable, and sensible in relation to the actions actively taken by users. In other words, an interactive ODB experience is the result of internal and subjective perceptions that users can easily change, interact with, and create multimedia content through official destination platforms.

4.2. Study 2 4.2.1. Participants in study 2 Twenty-seven individuals located in the United States and enrolled

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5. Conclusions

communication and images representing the official destination. The present investigation offers a different qualitative methodology than that used in the tourism literature. In the two studies performed as part of this research, a sample of participants from MTurk engaged in an online scenario based on a photo-elicitation technique. The study was conducted on the Qualtrics platform, which was used as an online qualitative field. Academic social science studies that use MTurk predominately focus on gathering quantitative data (Shank, 2016). In contrast, but in line with recent studies on consumer research (e.g., Price, Coulter, Strizhakova, & Schultz, 2018), the authors of this study suggest a new approach that allows more qualitative studies on tourism to use crowdsourcing as an affordable medium for recruiting valuable participant insights via, for example, open-ended questions intended to obtain narratives about a research phenomenon.

This study responds to recent works suggesting that there is a need to conduct further empirical research on the brand experience construct (Andreini et al. (2018)). One of the main contributions of the present work to the literature is its extension of Brakus et al.'s (2009) fourdimensional brand experience scale with two additional dimensions (interactive and social). This study finds that Brakus et al.'s (2009) four dimensions of the brand experience (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral) are implicit in users' narratives about their positive ODB experiences with official destination platforms. When adapting the model in the online destination brand context, however, two additional dimensions—the social and interactive dimensions—must be incorporated to gain a holistic understanding of tourists' ODB experiences with different destination platforms (Fig. 1). The evidence provided by this study contributes to the academic destination marketing literature as it re-evaluates the destination brand experience model proposed by Barnes et al. (2014), which applies Brakus et al.'s (2009) model only to in-person visits to a destination. The present research argues that the ODB experience has more complex dimensionality due to tourists' experiential processing of destination brand stimuli and simulation via online environments in the pre-visit phase. Four ODB dimensions (i.e., the sensory, affective, intellectual, and social dimensions) emerged in the first study, which included Spanish participants. The second qualitative study, which was conducted with North American participants for data triangulation purposes, featured the same four ODB dimensions as well as two additional dimensions (i.e., the behavioral and interactive dimensions). The presence of more dimensions in study 2 can be attributed to two factors. First, Barcelona is an attractive European destination to North American tourists, while Serbia is less visited by Spanish tourists. In this regard, previous tourism literature argues that destination familiarity, defined as the visual or mental impression of a destination or tourist experience (Milman & Pizam, 1995), influences how tourists process a destination's promotional information (Baloglu, 2001; Choe & Fesenmaier, 2014). It is believed that, in selecting either familiar or unfamiliar destinations, tourists first search their memories and previous experiences for familiar information to guide their decision. Tourists' familiarity with a travel destination is likely to lead them to the direct acquisition of available information from their memories (Horng, Liu, Chou, & Tsai, 2012). Thus, tourist experiences and memories can drive the destination-selection process to perform a more efficient and effective external search for the important attributes that a destination offers to tourists (Gursoy, Del Chiappa, & Zhang, 2018). Consequently, in the context of this study, the North American participants were more involved in the experience of the official destination platform than were the Spanish participants, as Barcelona was a realistic and attractive destination to the North Americans. This means that the North American participants added memory cues to the simple experience of being in contact with images that represented the destination's official online platform. In contrast, the Spanish participants, who were less familiar with the presented destination, were guided only by the images, which constrained their creation of expectations of what the destination could offer them. Second, following Caldwell and Freire (2004), destination stimuli are experienced in different ways for cities and countries. It is argued that city branding enables tourists to form clear expectations of what the destination offers (e.g., beaches, sports activities, good weather), while country branding can be functionally diverse (Caldwell & Freire, 2004). Thus, if Serbia is an unknown destination to Spanish tourists (as was reported by the participants in study 1), they cannot create clear expectations and form a significant ODB experience through only online

5.1. Theoretical implications The findings of the current study support some studies indicating that the customer experience also includes a social dimension (Verhoef et al., 2009). The meaning that tourists ascribe to the social ODB experience supports some recent brand experience studies indicating that social presence is key for relevant online brand experiences (Bleier et al., 2018). The participants' narratives suggest that if they can learn about the destination from other tourists' comments and opinions, connect with destination managers, and socialize with other users, they will perceive destination brands' platforms as ready for seamless conversation between tourists and the destination. According to Holt (1995), consumers' understandings and interpretations are embedded in a social world, providing “participants with an intersubjectively shared lens through which they can make sense of situations, roles, actions and objects” (p. 3). Interactivity while navigating online platforms is perceived by users as the ability to transform, modify, or even create content by obtaining/ copying images from the platforms, commenting on videos, or uploading personalized multimedia content (Mollen & Wilson, 2010). Likewise, this study defines the interactive ODB experience as the internally and subjectively perceived ability of users to change, create, or interact with the content on a destination's official platform. Hence, the interactive ODB experience's definition can be linked to concepts related to perceived interactivity in the literature. Based on the narratives presented by the participants in this study, users expect that when a destination platform allows for dissemination, creation, and modification of its multimedia content, the experience with the destination brand will be interactive and, ultimately, more positive. The findings of this study support the suitability of the brand experience dimensions developed by Brakus et al. (2009) in the research about the online destination brand paradigm. However, the strength and intensity of ODB experiences vary across different destination platforms. In this study, sensory and intellectual experiences on the destination's website were identified as more important than other experiences. From the respondents' perspective, the websites featured better-organized content and offered a range of images, videos, and texts about the destination. The destination's official Instagram was noted for its mainly sensory (i.e., visual) influence. Instagram was also associated with motivation to visit the destination and adopt the associated lifestyle, and it facilitated rapid learning about the destination (i.e., it offered a behavioral ODB experience). The destination's official Facebook mainly offered an interactive experience, as it allowed tourists to learn from others' opinions and comments while creating multimedia content. The destination's official Twitter account also offered interactive and social experiences because users could share their opinions and comments about the destination and directly connect with

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optimal intellectual online experience, DMOs can create sections offering information about the destination's new tourist attractions and unique activities that can serve as an alternative to mainstream attractions and activities. The findings also indicate that, depending on the platform used, some experiences stand out. Thus, DMOs should focus on offering a holistic ODB experience and ensuring that all its official platforms complement one another.

other users who previously commented on the destination's content. Existing conceptualizations of the online brand experience in the context of tourism are clear but weak because their theoretical underpinnings conflict with well-established constructs, such as online service quality. Morgan-Thomas and Veloutsou (2013) and Lee and Jeong (2014) define the online brand experience as a result of users' evaluations of the characteristics of a platform (e.g., ease of use, aesthetics, and usefulness). In contrast, this study conceptualizes the ODB experience as users' internal and subjective responses to the destination brand while in contact with official destination platforms. This research is among the first to qualitatively examine the conceptualization of the ODB experience; existing studies have predominantly used a quantitative approach to explore this concept (Jiménez-Barreto et al., 2019).

5.3. Limitations and future research The present study has some limitations. First, the data gathering process, which was conducted online, did not allow for strict control of participants' surroundings during the photo-elicitation and writing tasks. Gathering data by interviewing tourists could overcome this limitation. Second, the ODB experience was analyzed using static images. Future studies should use a real navigation task involving images as an experiential cue to not limit the emergence of some dimensions of the ODB experience (e.g., the interactive and behavioral dimensions) that were observed in study 1. Third, the study participants were mainly Westerners. Given the differences in cultural values (e.g., individualism vs. collectivism) that can emerge while visiting brand platforms (Kim, Sohn, & Choi, 2011), future studies examining the formation of positive ODB experiences would benefit from a crosscultural sample population. Fourth, future studies should test the six dimensions identified in this research to confirm their importance and quantitative relevance. Fifth, the ODB experience was analyzed by asking participants to imagine that they will visit a given destination in order to simulate a pre-visit situation. Future studies could evaluate narratives about the ODB experience in the in-situ and post-visit phases. Finally, some studies on destination brand experiences have proposed that there are interconnections between the different components of the brand experience (Agapito, Mendes, & Valle, 2013; Jiménez-Barreto et al., 2019). Future research should examine how the identified brand experience dimensions influence one another, especially whether one brand experience dimension acts as an antecedent or consequence of others.

5.2. Managerial implications This study also offers several implications for DMOs wanting to facilitate a positive ODB experience based on the identified six dimensions. From a sensory experience perspective, DMOs should provide a range of high-quality online content to delight users and evoke the sensation of visiting the destination. The focus should be thematization of stimuli (e.g., use of a representative touristic offer as the central content in promotional discourse) and incorporation of emotional cues to evoke an affective connection between the tourist and online destination content. For example, Barcelona could be represented as a sports city facilitating an active lifestyle given the high number of sports activities offered for tourists. In addition, DMOs should allow for a high level of interaction with the destination's online content to help users develop a better affective relationship with the destination brand and stimulate tourists that have already visited the destination to participate in co-creation of online content. The findings obtained regarding the interactive ODB experience confirm that tourists' involvement with the destination should be considered an essential phase of co-creative destination branding (Kim, Stepchenkova, & Babalou, 2018), especially on the destination's official social media, which are expected to have greater content interactivity and social interaction than the official destination website. A similar result was reported by Molinillo, Liébana-Cabanillas, Anaya-Sánchez, and Buhalis's (2018), who found that users seek social interaction with their preferred destination social media, not the official website. This type of participation would help to develop a community of tourists interested in the destination (i.e., create a social ODB experience) and enhance the brand's credibility. Moreover, from an intellectual perspective, online content should stimulate users' curiosity about the destination. Respondents' narratives indicated that they sought interesting content regarding new things to do and unique experiences at tourist destinations. To provide an

Acknowledgements This work was supported by both Spanish Ministry of Economy , Industry, and Competitiveness: [Grant Number ECO2015-69103-R] and the Kyösti Haataja Foundation [Grant Number 20180022]. The first author is grateful to Professor Robin Coulter (Uconn), for her inspirational PhD program sessions held during the fall of 2018 about conducting qualitative research using projective techniques.

Appendix Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.07.005.

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Jano Jiménez-Barreto is a Doctoral Candidate in Marketing Research at the Department of Finance and Marketing, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain). His principal research interests include consumption experiences, tourism marketing, destination branding, sociology of consumption, multimethod research and scale development with a focus on multichannel brand experience. He has published articles in journals as Current Issues in Tourism, International Journal of Tourism Research, Tourism Management Perspectives, among others.

Erose Sthapit a Postdoctoral researcher in Marketing at the Department of Marketing, University of Vaasa, Finland. His research interests include memorable tourism experiences, culinary experiences, souvenir shopping experiences, interactive value formation and the sharing economy. He has published in Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Anatolia, Current Issues in Tourism, Tourism Management Perspectives, Psychology & Marketing and Leisure Studies.

Natalia Rubio is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Research at the Department of Finance and Marketing, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain). Her research interests include brand experiences, customer experiences, co-creation through online platforms, multichannel management, and retail marketing. She has published articles in several well-known international journals such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Service Management, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, International Journal of Tourism Research, among others.

Sara Campo is an Associate Professor in the Marketing Research at the Department of Finance and Marketing, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain). She has published books and articles in several well-known international journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, International Journal of Tourism Research, among others.

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