Social media influencers are increasingly recognized for their ability to influence tourists' decision-making processes. The emergent phenomenon of virtual influencers presents an unprecedented challenge to their human counterparts, reshaping the dynamics of the tourism industry. It remains a challenge to integrate various forms of destination advertising and harmonize the approaches of both human and virtual influencers to effectively attract tourists. This study addresses this gap by investigating the effectiveness of human and virtual influencers in endorsing natural versus cultural destinations. Adopting source credibility theory, we conduct five empirical studies. Our findings reveal that virtual influencers boost visit intentions for cultural destinations, while human influencers do so for natural destinations. Credibility and self-referencing play a serially mediating role in this process. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating role of tourists’ preference for uniqueness. This research offers valuable insights for tourism industry managers aiming to harness the power of virtual influencers effectively.

中文翻译：

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人类与虚拟影响者的影响：目的地类型和自我参考过程的作用


社交媒体影响者因其影响游客决策过程的能力而日益受到认可。虚拟影响者的出现给人类同行带来了前所未有的挑战，重塑了旅游业的动态。整合各种形式的目的地广告并协调人类和虚拟影响者的方法以有效吸引游客仍然是一个挑战。本研究通过调查人类和虚拟影响者在认可自然目的地和文化目的地方面的有效性来解决这一差距。采用来源可信度理论，我们进行了五项实证研究。我们的研究结果表明，虚拟影响者可以提高文化目的地的访问意向，而人类影响者则可以提高自然目的地的访问意向。可信度和自我参照在此过程中发挥着连续的中介作用。此外，本研究探讨了游客对独特性的偏好的调节作用。这项研究为旨在有效利用虚拟影响者力量的旅游业管理者提供了宝贵的见解。