Elegant With Leisurely: Luxury Tourism Consumption and Brand Love

The Perspective of Emotions

Emotional perspectives have been examined across numerous luxury consumption models using a variety of conceptual paradigms (Mo et al., 2023). Emotional responses form a solid antecedent for consumer evaluations of hedonic product experiences and brand attitudes (Thai et al., 2023). Luxury brands provide hedonic experiences and sensory satisfaction through high-quality products and services (Mahmoud et al., 2021), satisfying consumers’ prestige and status, pleasure from luxury consumption, sense of social bond through product use (Peng & Chen, 2019), and vividness to ensure a positive virtual tourism experience (Cheng & Huang, 2022). From an emotional perspective, positive emotions influence consumers’ decision-making regarding luxury spending (Hu & Dang-Van, 2023). Thus, we argue that prestige sensitivity, uniqueness, perceived uniqueness, and vividness lead to the luxury tourism consumption of tourism products, leading to alternate emotional reactions affecting brand love.

Furthermore, tourists’ views are internal and personal, so brand experiences must be attuned to their unique and complex emotions (Silva et al., 2021). Tourists’ emotional responses to a brand significantly contribute to loyal behavior. Furthermore, studies have shown that luxury tourism consumption emotionally affects brand love (Y. Kim & Legendre, 2023), especially regarding consumer passion for a brand. Tourism businesses must consider the long-term relationship between brands and consumers and use relationship marketing strategies to strengthen consumers’ brand loyalty.

Consumption Value

Consumption value is the consumers’ choice as a function based on the valuation of multiple consumers. This results in different consumption contributions in any choice (S. Kim et al., 2022). Studies on consumption value have shown that the value consumers obtain from a product has two dimensions (Peng & Chen, 2019): utilitarian and non-utilitarian. Furthermore, consumption value affects the consumers’ evaluation of their product consumption experiences (Kwon et al., 2022); this is a critical determinant of consumers’ luxury consumption decisions.

The consumption value perspective explains that individuals’ conspicuous consumption is often triggered by the desire to “climb the social ladder” by increasing their perceived value through luxury consumption (Stathopoulou & Balabanis, 2019). In the tourism context, the perceived value of luxury consumption has been found to influence customers’ brand choice, purchase intention, and willingness to pay (Japutra et al., 2022). Likewise, luxury tourism product factors reflect consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, and influences on product characteristics.

Furthermore, cultural values influence consumers’ perceptions of product availability, uniqueness, quality, and social luxury (Stathopoulou & Balabanis, 2019). Research shows that individuals who identify with peer and social status factors change their behavior to conform to peer standards and consumer values (Gao et al., 2023). Thus, luxury consumption can reflect the consumer’s relationship with ideal people and others with similar experiences from peer connections. As consumption value involves peer influence with sufficient information on their society, consumers may want to evaluate products and learn more about the meaning and consequences of consumption.

Luxury Brand and Brand Love for Tourism Businesses in O2O Commerce

Brand love refers to satisfied consumers’ enthusiasm and emotional attachment to a brand name (Carroll & Ahuvia, 2006). Regarding luxury brands, Batra et al. (2012) found that brand love needs to be based on how the brands understand consumers’ brand love experience. Y. C. Wang et al. (2019) re-conceptualized the formation of love in hotel brands, consumers’ feelings and experiences of brand love, and the premise of the overall concept of brand love. Khoi and Le (2022) stated that a luxury hotel brand that reflects various brand qualities can drive satisfaction and liking, boosting brand engagement among customers. Similarly, as brand experience impacts brand satisfaction in the aviation sector (Pabla & Soch, 2023), an airline brand experience can be created through marketing communication channels.

Tourism marketers invest heavily in social media to incentivize positive brand reviews, while product presentation on luxury brand websites influences consumer decision-making (Chrimes et al., 2022). Thus, information asymmetry will increase the impact of product uncertainty on consumers (X. Y. Chen et al., 2023), and perceived product fit diagnosticity will affect consumers’ attitudes toward products (Lai et al., 2022). As regards the use of chatbots in tourism businesses, when customers interact with a chatbot, they perceive a higher cognitive fit with the products if the chatbot provides them with suggestive guidance (Chen, Le & Florence et al., 2021). The chatbot can help consumers with product concerns and create a consistent customer experience.

As Japutra et al. (2022) pointed out, luxury tourism research examines luxury product service quality, shopping tourism, preferences, and tourism experiences. Using big data analytics, researchers and managers have found that luxury travelers use online booking systems and tourism forums to obtain luxury tourism products. In addition, luxury tourists tend to book luxury tourism products directly through individual tourism websites. Feng et al. (2021) found that consumers react strongly to social media content posted by people close to them. Note that O2O e-commerce is an emerging business model in tourism businesses (Lee & Hallak, 2020), and the service quality of tourism businesses plays a vital role in improving customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Clarity in product content also influences the buyers’ evaluation of luxury brands, as trust influences their beliefs when evaluating product opinions (C. D. Chen & Ku, 2021). Thus, the description of luxury brands provides consumers with a deeper understanding of the products. The O2O model emphasizes the offline experience of consumers. Tourism businesses’ O2O strategies can strengthen the monitoring responsibility of physical stores to ensure consistency in O2O commerce.

In contrast, a destination brand is a symbolic identity related to tourists’ wishes, needs, and comprehensive emotions (Swanson, 2017), central to forming brand love based on the destination from which they select luxury tourism products; the basics of quality tourism destinations facilitate relational and experiential themes, and destination branding, as a relationship with customers, must be carefully considered to make it stable and loyal. Tourism businesses provide attractive online information and make customers highly interested in the quality of tourism products when they purchase online information (X. Q. Wang, 2020). Offline merchants can clarify consumers’ doubts about product defects not included in online product descriptions, focusing on the product aspects of advantage. In the O2O tourism business environment, consumers’ satisfaction with convenience from expectation confirmation also positively impacts overall customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Tourism businesses must, therefore, formulate unique promotional strategies for luxury tourism.

Prestige Sensitivity of Tourism Products

Prestige sensitivity arises from favorable price cue perceptions based on feelings of prominence and status. Consumers may have to pay higher prices for this (Lai et al., 2022). Consumers expect luxury products to improve their reputation and status; their sensitivity to reputation will also affect their preferences and purchasing attitudes toward luxury products.

Consumers’ luxury consumption experience, personal preferences, and brands of luxury tourism products, are the most critical factors affecting their satisfaction (Sharda & Bhat, 2019), and prestige sensitivity has a significant impact on consumers’ perceived price (K. G. Pillai & Nair, 2021; Zielke & Komor, 2015). Luxury tourism products will quickly draw consumers’ interest and attention; correspondingly, consumers who choose trendy luxury tourism products demonstrate more excellent economic status.

Luxury Tourism Consumption

Luxury tourism includes shopping, creative activities, and cultural tourism, with luxury consumption and cultural elements in the itinerary design (Chand & Fei, 2021; Correia et al., 2020). From an emotional perspective, salient product features influence consumer decisions to spend more on luxury tourism.

Luxury tourism consumption typically attracts higher-income consumers who wish to display wealth by consuming luxurious tourism products (Lai et al., 2022). Luxury tourism is also related to consumers’ destination choices (Japutra et al., 2022); changes in luxury goods production and consumption lead to increased shopping and tourism.

Prestige sensitivity influences tourists to shop for luxury brands (Correia et al., 2020). Likewise, luxury tourism indicates that consumers use well-known luxury brands to appear different from their peers and raise their dignity and social status. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Perceived Uniqueness of Tourism Products

Uniqueness refers to the distinctive characteristics of luxury tourism products that consumers perceive in terms of product attributes (Jebarajakirthy & Das, 2021). A product’s uniqueness can affect consumers’ attitudes toward the product, primarily through brand love (Fazli-Salehi et al., 2021). The demand for product uniqueness is recognized as a crucial psychological factor influencing consumer willingness to consume luxury goods. Thus, tourism operators must provide distinctive products that meet consumers’ expectations.

Previous studies have highlighted consumer tendencies to purchase specific products to differentiate themselves, discussing the individual variation in consumer preferences for prestige products (Casalo et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2022). Furthermore, consumers’ inclination toward these attributes can differ by gender or consumer group and requirement (Han, 2023). Therefore, businesses’ strategies to enhance product diversity may stimulate more luxury options in the market. Simultaneously, numerous specific products can meet the diverse needs of different consumers.

The unique attributes of tourism products play a significant role in consumers’ consumption decisions. In the context of gorgeous sense-making, marketing strategies for luxury tourism products should focus on understanding individual consumer identities. Specific luxury tourism products should cater to consumer needs. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Vividness of Tourism Products

The vividness of tourism products includes the clarity and richness of product information presented through O2O channels (Cheng & Huang, 2022; S. Kim, Park et al., 2022). This is designed to captivate and stimulate consumers’ attention and imagination toward the O2O channel products (Vazquez, 2019). Consequently, vividness is pivotal in influencing consumers’ online shopping behaviors (Changchit & Klaus, 2020) by engaging and stimulating their attention and imagination toward the O2O channel products.

Previous studies have highlighted the impact of vivid products in the O2O channels on enhancing consumer appeal (Vazquez, 2019). Online vividness, particularly of luxury products, provides consumers with various information cues on products, providing more information than textual product descriptions. As products are presented with clarity, consumers gain more straightforward information per their needs. Explicit content also mitigates consumer reservations when the ideas presented appear irrelevant or inconsistent.

The product display in O2O marketing strategies must be lively enough to stimulate consumer sensitivity, facilitating a deeper understanding of the product. Therefore, consumers acquire pertinent information from various tourism enterprise websites, leading to purchase decisions. In other words, the vividness of products helps consumers to make consumption decisions. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Brand Love of Tourism Products

Brand love is defined as satisfied consumers’ passion and emotional attachment toward a particular product name (Y. Kim & Legendre, 2023); consumers rely on the brand name to understand the product’s practical aspects (S. Kim, Park et al., 2022). Brand love can be the basis for enterprises to understand consumers’ evaluation of products and brand equity.

Prior research on luxury consumption has focused on new tourism product brands (Kang, 2018; Khoi & Le, 2022). The emotional and experiential aspects of consumers with luxury lodging have been perceived as a co-creation of experience (Manfreda et al., 2022); through social interaction in the sensory environment and interaction with service personnel of tourism businesses, consumers gain brand awareness and continued love for the product.

A distinctive brand liking implies that consumers are economically able to buy the product. Personal and situational factors also influence consumers’ brand liking. Correspondingly, consumers usually evaluate their preferred brand products from the perspective of luxury consumption. Therefore, the more consumers desire luxury tourism, the more familiar they are with their preferred brand. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

The Moderating Role of Perceived Product Fit Diagnosticity From Chatbots

Perceived product fit diagnosticity is defined as consumers’ cognitive beliefs that a channel enhances their product understanding (Chrimes et al., 2022). In AI applications, enterprises use chatbots to provide better customer service on social platforms and corporate websites (Chen, Le & Florence et al., 2021). Consequently, perceived product fit diagnosticity from chatbots can be assessed by asking consumers to rate a particular shopping experience and the chatbot’s ability to match the product’s quality and performance.

Chatbots can provide customers with immediate consultation and guidance (Li & Wang, 2023) and act as another friendly social communication channel. Studies have argued that consumers’ brand prestige sensitivity significantly affects their evaluation of luxury brands (Punyatoya, 2013). Perceived product fit diagnosticity positively impacts the cognitive assessment of tourism product attributes during a product trial (E. S. T. Wang, 2022). Additionally, Chen, Le & Florence et al. (2021) found that the usability and responsiveness of chatbots can enhance customer satisfaction in e-retailing. Aligning the chatbot’s communication style with customers’ shopping objectives can increase the cognitive fit and facilitate online shopping decisions.

Consumers usually require clarity on product attributes for luxury items owing to information asymmetry and lack of experience. When chatbots offer high-level diagnosticity support, consumers will fully understand the product and be able to evaluate its suitability, thereby reducing their decision-making time quickly. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Luxury products align closely with brand objectives, while product scarcity enhances consumers’ willingness to purchase (Das et al., 2018), and Chatbots guide consumers in designing improved user experiences and thus improve user awareness and adoption intention (Li & Wang, 2023). Businesses providing consumers with customized products contribute to an enhanced brand experience (Petruzzellis & Winer, 2023). These findings illustrate the impact of chatbots in persuading consumers to respond positively to product uniqueness.

Tourism businesses employ branding strategies to provide experiences tailored to customer preferences. The characteristics of luxury tourism products control consumers’ consumption decisions, mainly when intelligent chatbots from travel agencies accurately confirm that the designated luxury tourism products will align with their distinct consumption choices. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Online purchases influence consumer buying behavior through the perceived risk associated with product impact response (Vonkeman et al., 2017). Perceived proximity with online businesses plays a crucial role in predicting consumers’ online shopping (W. Wu, Yang, & Gong, 2023), and product visual appeal positively influences the amount of information perceived by consumers and its flow status.

Tourism businesses utilize chatbots to assist in product identification, thereby shaping consumers’ perception of the O2O channels’ ability to convey information about luxury products. This can enhance consumers’ understanding and evaluation of the quality and performance of corporate promotional products, bolstering product fit diagnosticity and increasing the value of luxury product offerings. The credibility of tourism businesses also influences consumers’ purchasing decisions. Perceived product fit diagnosticity from chatbots and perceived product vividness influence consumer behavior. Hence, the present study’s scented product fit diagnosticity from chatbots is a critical concept. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Moderating the Role of Peer Influence

Brand attitudes and purchases are predicted by consumers’ prior brand preferences (Bonilla-Quijada et al., 2023): consumers emphasize information received from other consumers, such as reviews and peer recommendations, rather than business information (Kautish & Khare, 2022). The growing role of peer influence catalyzes consumers’ willingness to purchase luxury products; similarly, studies have shown that hedonism, peer influence, and the need for product exclusivity significantly impact consumers’ willingness to buy luxury products (Tofighi et al., 2022); consumers know their friends prefer a brand, peer reviews also affect consumers’ preferences of merchants.

Consumers often show a keen sense of luxury for fashion tourism products. They tend to choose distinctive tourism offerings, setting consumption trends to reflect their socioeconomic status. Correspondingly, consumers who choose tourism products exhibit an elevated luxury temperament in their peer circles. Thus, we have the following hypothesis:

Measures

All usage perception scales in this study are based on the literature pertaining to luxury tourism consumption. These scales were chosen from the relevant literature and developed into a self-administered questionnaire. To measure prestige sensitivity, we used a three-item scale adopted from Zielke and Komor (2015), the perceived uniqueness of luxury tourism product scale adopted from Casalo et al. (2020), and a three-item scale on product vividness adapted from S. Kim, Park et al. (2022). To measure the luxury consumption of tourism products, we used a six-item scale adopted from Chand and Chen (2021); to measure brand love, we used a five-item scale adapted from Zheng (2023); to measure the perceived product fit diagnosticity, we used a seven-item scale adopted from Chrimes et al. (2022), and to measure peer influence, we used a three-item scale adopted from Kautish and Khare (2022).

This study used a two-way translation process to translate the English version of the questionnaire into the Chinese version. We then invited three scholars majoring in tourism management to examine and ensure the accuracy and apparent validity of the translations. We also invited 25 tourism business staff members for a pre-test using the Chinese version of the questionnaire after slightly adjusting the wording of the items to improve content validity and enable the respondents to understand the questionnaire during the survey better. Appendix A summarizes the scales. Measurement items were measured using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree.

Data Collection

We conditionally limited the objective demand for luxury tourism products or services by applying purposive sampling, considering the relevance of well-known tourism product brands or destinations to luxury tourism products (Iloranta, 2022; Zheng, 2023); four well-known travel agencies, including Lion Travel (https://www.liontravel.com), Pacific Travel Service (https://www.pac-group.net/), EZ Travel (https://www.eztravel.com.tw/), and Cola Tour (www.colatour.com.tw), helped in distributing the questionnaire in Taiwan. We first confirmed that the target samples were selected with the marketers’ assistance of travel agencies and ensured that consumers spend more than US$5,000 on luxury tourism products consumers buy complex tourism products, such as package itineraries, airline tickets, and hotels products from travel agencies (Iloranta & Komppula, 2022).

A digital questionnaire was developed by the SURVEYCAKE enterprise system (https://www.surveycake.com), and it was used to conduct our survey with hyperlinks to consumers by marketers’ processing to those who answered the questionnaire based on their luxury tourism experience (Batat, 2022). We sent 1,200 online invitation emails with digital questionnaire hyperlinks to those participants; 213 questionnaires were completed.

Demographics of Samples

The demographic data of the respondents were collected from March to May 2023. Nearly 64.3% of the respondents were male, and over 65% were above 41 years old. Furthermore, around 60.1% of the participants bought tourism products more than six times yearly from travel agencies. Table 1 presents the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

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Table 1.

Sample Description (n = 213).

		Number	Percentage (%)
Gender	Male	137	64.3
	Female	76	35.7
Age (Years)	31-40	71	33.3
	41-50	75	35.2
	51-60	52	24.4
	Above 61	15	7.1
Education	High School	15	7.1
	University	102	47.9
	Graduate School	96	45.0
Frequency Buying From	Under 5 times	82	38.5
OTA per Years	6 –10 times	72	33.8
	Above 11 times	59	27.7
Product	Flight Tickets Plus Hotel	114	53.5
	Tour Package	99	46.5

Common Method Bias

Common method bias (CMB) is a significant concern because it can cause measurement errors, for example, in brand love (Tran et al., 2021). Various statistical remedies proposed in the literature have been used by researchers (Chin et al., 2012). To test for CMB, we used the Harmon one-factor test (Baumgartner et al., 2021). The analysis indicated an explained covariance of 20.43% for the seven potential constructs, suggesting no CMB in this study.

Scale Reliability and Measurement Model Validity

This study used the SmartPLS (Version 4) software in partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to estimate the hypothetical model. First, we examined the factor loadings to assess the explanatory power of each observed variable in the model. From the item-loading perspective, each indicator’s absolute standardized loading should be higher than 0.70. The reliability index gives the acquisition composite reliability (CR), and each construction meets the minimum criteria of 0.70. Convergent validity is calculated on the average variance extracted (AVE) to estimate the variation explanatory ability of each measurement variable about the latent variable. The AVE of each construct met the minimum standard requirement of 0.50 (Idoko et al., 2019); Cronbach’s α, rho_A, CR, and AVE estimates are presented in Appendix A.

Discriminant validity is established by including Cross-loadings analysis, the Fornell-Larcker criterion, and the Heterotrait-Monotrait at ratio (HTMT) method (Hair et al., 2019). First, we calculated the cross-loading of the measurement model, and the cross-loadings used for the proposed model. The item loadings used to check validity were more significant than 0.7 (Sample et al., 2024) and above the acceptable threshold, as shown in Table 2.

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Table 2.

Cross-Loadings Analysis.

ITEMS	PS	PU	VIV	PI	LC	BL	PD
PS1	0.871	0.618	0.481	0.620	0.406	0.543	0.648
PS2	0.770	0.464	0.451	0.480	0.337	0.501	0.543
PS3	0.909	0.659	0.569	0.662	0.415	0.562	0.734
PU1	0.626	0.906	0.607	0.890	0.389	0.516	0.709
PU2	0.615	0.865	0.525	0.851	0.351	0.485	0.643
PU3	0.586	0.883	0.564	0.871	0.388	0.465	0.624
VIV1	0.513	0.556	0.825	0.573	0.219	0.435	0.656
VIV2	0.492	0.529	0.850	0.519	0.260	0.480	0.727
VIV3	0.518	0.571	0.905	0.574	0.224	0.496	0.801
PI1	0.626	0.906	0.607	0.890	0.389	0.516	0.709
PI2	0.615	0.865	0.525	0.851	0.351	0.485	0.643
PI3	0.586	0.883	0.564	0.871	0.388	0.465	0.624
PI4	0.565	0.718	0.512	0.830	0.320	0.429	0.645
LC1	0.400	0.357	0.176	0.369	0.891	0.367	0.324
LC2	0.384	0.357	0.194	0.361	0.897	0.330	0.334
LC3	0.371	0.317	0.241	0.336	0.850	0.361	0.355
LC4	0.402	0.423	0.258	0.412	0.917	0.381	0.380
LC5	0.409	0.380	0.292	0.359	0.804	0.376	0.350
LC6	0.432	0.403	0.280	0.386	0.914	0.358	0.383
BL1	0.606	0.468	0.436	0.467	0.389	0.869	0.517
BL2	0.597	0.501	0.451	0.500	0.370	0.879	0.553
BL3	0.513	0.512	0.531	0.534	0.360	0.859	0.569
BL4	0.505	0.451	0.467	0.437	0.326	0.859	0.502
BL5	0.489	0.446	0.481	0.437	0.335	0.853	0.518
PD1	0.492	0.529	0.850	0.519	0.260	0.480	0.727
PD2	0.518	0.571	0.905	0.574	0.224	0.496	0.801
PD3	0.702	0.687	0.610	0.713	0.400	0.459	0.829
PD4	0.673	0.687	0.583	0.715	0.337	0.457	0.826
PD5	0.675	0.611	0.486	0.616	0.376	0.524	0.779
PD6	0.536	0.511	0.638	0.542	0.337	0.522	0.778
PD7	0.625	0.552	0.638	0.561	0.307	0.475	0.821

Note. PS = prestige sensitivity; PU = perceived uniqueness; VIV = vividness; PI = peer influence; LC = luxury consumption; BL = brand love; PD = perceived product fit diagnosticity.

Second, we used the Fornell-Lacker criterion and the Heterotrait-Monotrait at ratio (HTMT) method to test discriminant validity. As for the statistical analysis of the research model, Table 3 lists the Fornell-Larcker criterion and HTMT; the results show that the model has good convergent validity.

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Table 3.

Fornell-Larcker Criterion and Heterotrait-Monotrait at Ratio.

	Constructs	BL	LC	PD	PI	PS	PU	VIV
Fornell-Larcker Criterion	BL	0.864
	LC	0.412	0.880
	PD	0.616	0.404	0.795
	PI	0.551	0.422	0.761	0.861
	PS	0.629	0.455	0.758	0.695	0.852
	PU	0.552	0.426	0.745	0.984	0.688	0.885
	VIV	0.548	0.274	0.847	0.644	0.589	0.641	0.861
Heterotrait-Monotrait at Ratio	BL
	LC	0.443
	PD	0.674	0.437
	PI	0.610	0.460	0.854
	PS	0.730	0.519	0.884	0.816
	PU	0.620	0.470	0.846	1.123	0.818
	VIV	0.628	0.308	0.980	0.754	0.720	0.759

Note. PS = prestige sensitivity; PU = perceived uniqueness; VIV = vividness; PI = peer influence; LC = luxury consumption; BL = brand love; PD = perceived product fit diagnosticity.

Test of the Structural Model

The determination coefficient (R squared) represents the variance explained by the exogenous variables in the endogenous variables. It evaluates the model’s goodness of fit (GOF; Hair et al., 2019). R squared was over 0.30 and the variance accounted for 37.2% of luxury tourism consumption and 42.6% of brand love. In addition, the effect size (f2) was less than 0.32, indicating that this is an explanatory research model.

In addition, the variance inflation factor (VIF) indicates whether collinearity exists between constructs. The research model is not collinear when the VIF is below 3.3 (Guenther et al., 2023). The analysis results show that the maximum value of VIF is 2.135, indicating that the research model fits well with no collinearity. SmartPLS was used to generate 1,000 samples using the bootstrapping technique of the PLS algorithm to analyze the significance of the path coefficients in the inner model. Table 4 lists the hypothesis testing results.

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Table 4.

Results of Hypothesis Testing.

Hypotheses	T value	Results
(H1) Prestige Sensitivity -> Luxury Consumption	2.235*	Supported
(H2) Perceived Uniqueness -> Luxury Consumption	6.570**	Supported
(H3) Vividness -> Luxury Consumption	2.849*	Supported
(H4) Luxury Consumption -> Brand Love	5.068**	Supported
(H5) Perceived Product Fit Diagnosticity x Prestige Sensitivity -> Luxury Consumption	7.898**	Supported
(H6) Perceived Product Fit Diagnosticity x Perceived Uniqueness -> Luxury Consumption	2.187*	Supported
(H7) Perceived Product Fit Diagnosticity x Vividness -> Luxury Consumption	3.304*	Supported
(H8) Peer Influence x Luxury Consumption -> Brand Love;	3.636*	Supported

*

p < 0.05. **p < 0.01.

The research findings indicate that prestige sensitivity (t = 2.235*, p < .05), perceived uniqueness of tourism products (t = 6.570**, p < .01), and vividness of tourism products (t = 2.849*, p < .05) impact the luxury tourism consumption of consumers. Luxury tourism consumption affects consumers’ brand love (t = 5.068**, p < .01). These results align with the research findings of previous studies such as Lai et al. (2022) and Manthiou et al. (2018).

Similarly, the following results are supported: The role of perceived product fit diagnosticity moderates prestige sensitivity positively (t = 7.898**, p < .01); perceived uniqueness (t = 2.187*, p < .05) and vividness (t = 3.304*, p < .05) affect the luxury tourism consumption of consumers; and peer influence moderates the luxury tourism consumption and affects the brand love of consumers (t = 3.636*, p < .05). These results are consistent with Lo and colleagues’ (2021) and Tofighi and colleagues’ (2022) findings.

Implications for Research

The study supplements brand love with emotions and consumption value perspective (see Figure 1). The results of this study make an essential contribution to the field of tourism marketing, specifically for brand love. Based on the study’s findings, prestige sensitivity and perceived uniqueness significantly affect brand love, and tourism businesses use chatbots to help consumers identify products. The perceived diagnosticity of chatbots is a crucial influencing variable in enhancing luxury consumption. It lays the foundation for future research on this emerging trend and illustrates how AI assists tourism businesses in developing their brand strategies.

Implications for Practice

First, Luxury tourism consumers often exhibit luxury consumption behaviors to gain social recognition through the prestige attached to products; luxury tourism product marketers can attract consumers by leveraging user-driven symbols, hedonic attributes, and brand equity reflecting consumers’ prestige. Tourism marketers should actively analyze the needs of consumers who purchase luxury tourism products and are sensitive to the products’ reputation. Marketers should reinforce tourism product prestige in luxury tourism to encourage consumers to purchase additional luxury products.

In addition, brand advertising of travel agencies will provide consumers with information, making advertising an effective means to link luxury products with brands and create prestige and likability. Moreover, marketers focus on symbolic elements: They integrate travel agency brands with tourism product design and marketing communication. The elements reflect the products that consumers find attractive and their symbols of prestige and luxury. However, tourism businesses try to enhance their brand credibility and ensure the originality and creativity of brand advertising content in their itinerary advertisements.

Second, the novelty of tourism products affects brand love through luxury consumption, while perceived product fit diagnosticity and peer influence play a moderating role. Marketers review and reinforce their products’ unique, rare, and sensory attributes in competitive markets to strengthen the brand image in consumer centers; this will be the cornerstone for consumers’ luxury consumption and brand love.

Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel and Emirates Sky Lounge are excellent examples of this strategy. Their unique luxury features ensure a high degree of luxury image, with aesthetic designs providing consumers with a high degree of sensory uniqueness, differentiating their products from competitors. Tourism businesses introduce unique products as a symbol of corporate brand. They also develop unique marketing strategies and try to attract consumers to brand-love-based businesses.

Third, this study suggests that tourism businesses should offer luxury products on social media and design effective brand communication. Consumer perceptions of quality in a virtual environment can affect luxury tourism consumption and brand love. Marketers should use the influence of peer relationships and the prestige of luxury groups to inspire luxury consumers to desire luxury tourism and be seen as luxury tourists led by LUXURY.

Tourism business marketers can exploit luxury consumers’ psychological tendencies and characteristics. Limited sales strategies can stimulate these consumers’ show-off psychology and enhance luxury consumption. Moreover, marketers can strengthen their brand qualities through visual branding and advertising. On the other hand, it can display the quality of its travel products and objective performance information through O2O channels to prove the luxury and excellence of its brand.

Fourth, AI-enabled diagnosticity affects the purchase behavior of consumers. This means that the perceived usefulness of collected information can help consumers make informed decisions. Tourism businesses can use AI innovations to provide consumers with accurate data through interactive agents and personalized technology (such as chatbots). AI-enabled diagnosticity can handle individual customer inquiries and provide appropriate service answers. It can also convey virtual experiences to consumers through O2O channels, allowing them to make quick decisions.

Finally, brand love can cater to consumers’ sensitivity to reputation in the tourism market. However, the storefront design of tourism brand products should be easily identifiable. Marketers should use the findings of this study to understand consumers’ awareness and brand expectations and develop relationship strategies; product marketing managers should develop brands for the products that consumers use to enhance their status and highlight their social class.

Brand marketing tourism business consumers can be emotionally involved in reflecting conspicuous consumption and communicating luxury brands. Tourism businesses must master the branding strategy of linking target brands with luxury marketing strategies in the context of affluent lifestyles, signaling consumers’ social status and attracting the admiration of others. Brand strategies can also be implemented effectively through celebrity advertisements. Prestige- and sensitivity-oriented advertising may be helpful in luxury tourism sales. Tourism marketers can use advertising to convey their reputation to consumers. They can also provide unexpected and personalized VIP services, offering prestige and surprise to their consumers. For example, luxury services can raise the prestige of consumers by providing them with timely personal expertise, consultation, and assistance.

Limitations and Future Research

Although this study makes theoretical and managerial contributions, it has several limitations, including brand strategic adaption and the marketing applications of digital technology. Therefore, we propose three future research directions. First, the impact of personalized design on luxury consumption and brand strategy can be explored in the future. Second, future researchers can analyze the performance impact of incorporating advertising endorsements on luxury consumption. Third, this study discusses the role of chatbots. Since technology provides many forms of innovation for travel businesses, future research could consider the impact of other technologies (such as virtual reality) on luxury consumption and brand strategies. This will help marketers to develop brand strategies and create differentiated products for consumers.