Natalia Vila-Lopez

Sustainability is increasingly central to destination image, yet little is known about whether food-celebrity endorsement can support sustainable tourism promotion. Drawing on Meaning-Transfer Theory, this study compares three Instagram posts promoting Spain as a sustainable destination: one featuring a Spanish chef, one featuring an English chef, and one with no celebrity. An experiment with 432 English potential tourists shows that, after accounting for celebrity familiarity, evidence of a host-celebrity advantage is limited to specific ad-related outcomes and audience segments. Celebrity endorsement does not consistently outperform a no-celebrity message (control condition) and may be ineffective or counterproductive for some targets. Older men strongly favored the control condition, whereas younger women slightly preferred the host over the origin celebrity. The findings are consistent with a familiarity–persuasion paradox and suggest that destination management organizations should consider tourists’ culture, age, gender, and celebrity familiarity when designing sustainable destination campaigns.

Purpose: Sports constitute a strategic pillar in enhancing destination image. This study aims to investigate the extent to which sports-related drivers (specifically sports clubs and sports celebrities) shape Spain's destination image. The research examines (1) the role of sports fans' engagement in determining perceptions of sports clubs and sports celebrities, (2) the subsequent influence of these perceptions on the overall image of Spain as a tourism destination, (3) the effect of destination image on trust and loyalty toward the country, (4) the impact of trust on destination loyalty and (5) the moderating function of tourists' knowledge of Spanish sports. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected from a probabilistic sample of 1,015 tourists originating from Spain's major inbound markets (the United Kingdom, France and Germany). The proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (SEM), allowing for the simultaneous estimation of causal relationships among the constructs. Findings: The analysis demonstrates that sports fans' engagement significantly enhances both sports club and sports celebrity image. These images, in turn, exert a positive effect on Spain's destination image. Moreover, destination image is shown to substantially increase both trust in the destination and destination loyalty. Trust also exerts a direct and positive influence on loyalty. Finally, tourists' knowledge of Spanish sports strengthens the relationship between engagement and sports image, while attenuating the influence of sports image on destination image. Practical implications: The findings suggest that destination marketing organisations should strategically collaborate with sports clubs and athletes to strengthen destination image, trust and loyalty. Marketing campaigns should also be adapted according to tourists' knowledge of national sports, as less knowledgeable tourists respond more strongly to sports-related image transfer. Originality/value: This study bridges existing gaps in sports and tourism literature by examining the combined influence of sports clubs, sports celebrities and fan engagement on destination image, trust and loyalty within an international tourist context. The incorporation of tourists' knowledge of Spanish sports as a moderating variable adds cultural depth to the theoretical model and generates relevant managerial implications for destination marketing and sports management practitioners.

This study examines how socio‐demographic variables are associated with postexposure responses to a social marketing campaign promoting the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. Perceived effectiveness was measured using four indicators which participants assessed after viewing a video: attitudes toward (a) the advertisement, (b) the sponsoring brand issuing the sustainability message (here, the UN) and (c) sustainability, as well as (d) sustainable behavior intention. A single‐exposure posttest design study was conducted with 690 participants from a Spanish university community, who viewed a viral sustainability campaign. The study analyzed whether responses varied according to gender, age, educational level, and income, as well as the interaction effects among these variables. The results suggest that gender is the most consistent differentiating factor, whereas age and educational level show more limited or selective effects and income shows little evidence of a main effect. Overall, the findings indicate that sustainability communication may benefit from adapting messages to audience profiles in specific institutional contexts. This work contributes context‐specific evidence from a university community and draws on established theoretical frameworks to interpret audience heterogeneity in SDG‐oriented communication.

Non-profit organisations are characterised by low volunteer loyalty. That is why this work tries to investigate how to motivate volunteers to improve their loyalty, comparing whether there are differences between men and women. Loyalty is measured in this work as: (1) a higher intention to remain in the organisation, (2) a lower intention to leave and (3) a higher intention to recommend. To this end, 761 volunteers (495 women and 266 men) serving in various NGOs were approached. Structural equation methodology with multi-sample analysis was used to analyse the information obtained. Results show that the volunteer’s gender only moderated two of the eight relationships listed. They were: (1) the relationship between the volunteer’s intrinsic motivation and their positive emotions, and (2) the relationship between positive emotions and volunteer satisfaction with their NGO. Both relationships occurred more intensely in the case of male volunteers. This means that when emotions are affected, men’s response is significantly greater than that of women.

Purpose: This paper presents a bibliometric review to map how academic research from different disciplines on luxury and gourmet restaurants has evolved, focusing on the most influential themes, contributors, and publication trends. To date, prior research has examined luxury as a broad construct, while bibliometric insights into luxury restaurant research remain scarce. Moreover, this study aims to uncover underlying structural patterns and theoretical imbalances within the field. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 287 peer-reviewed journal articles was retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science, covering publications from 1995 to March 2025. Bibliometric tools such as VOSviewer and Bibliometrix were employed to conduct performance analysis and science mapping. Findings: The analysis reveals growing academic interest in luxury dining, with dominant research topics that have been grouped into six clusters: (1) studies centered on customer satisfaction in the frame of the servicescape; (2) studies focused on the Michelin Guide linked to Destination Marketing Theories, Internationalization frameworks (global versus local strategies) and Digitalization; (3) studies interested in behavioral intentions grounded in the Pleasure–Arousal Paradigm, Theory of Planned Behavior and Brand Attachment; (4) studies focused on customer satisfaction but framed in the Experiential Consumption and Brand Personality Theory; (5) studies based on long-term loyalty in luxury restaurant, inspired in the Relationship Marketing and Social Psychology Theories; (5) studies managerially orientated, using approaches such as the traditional SERVQUAL model. Overall, core themes include customer satisfaction, service quality, behavioral intentions, loyalty, and the role of the Michelin Guide. Beyond this thematic structure, the findings reveal a strong theoretical convergence around satisfaction–loyalty paradigms, suggesting a potential saturation of dominant research streams. At the same time, the analysis exposes a structural imbalance, with a clear dominance of psychological and managerial models, while cultural and institutional perspectives remain underrepresented. Emerging trends highlight increasing attention to emotional value, sustainability, digital transformation, and identity signaling, although these remain weakly integrated into the dominant theoretical core. Originality/value: Despite the field’s interdisciplinary potential, this study demonstrates that luxury restaurant research is characterized by structural fragmentation, theoretical saturation, and disciplinary imbalance. By moving beyond a purely classificatory approach, the review provides a more critical understanding of the field’s intellectual development and offers guidance for future theory-building across hospitality, marketing, and consumer behavior.

This research aims to explain the volume of eWOM in the context of international trade shows based on (1) social media content strategies, (2) social media message features, and (3) time frame (posting date ex ante COVID-19 crisis or posting date ex post COVID-19 crisis). The data were collected from Twitter, using a tweet as the unit of analysis. In total 3,482 tweets were analyzed: 1,930 tweets from January 1, 2019, to March 10, 2020 (period 1, posting date ex ante COVID-19) and 1,552 tweets from March 11, 2020, to August 31, 2021 (period 2, posting date ex post COVID-19). Our results show, on one side, that the usage of some social media content strategies (informational and transformational strategies) and some social media message features (videos, mentions and photos) influences the eWOM volume. On another side, tweets published in ex ante COVID-19 predicted eWOM volume better than ex post.

This paper aims to investigate three pillars of social media sports marketing engagement (quantitatively and qualitatively): (i) engagement with a sports league (event), (ii) engagement with the celebrity athletes, and (iii) engagement with the sponsoring brands. To achieve these three objectives, several posts on Instagram were monitored: (i) 145 posts from the surf sports league to compare gender and 57 to compare country of origin (ii) 737 posts from 13 famous athletes competing in the league (407 male and 300 female) (iii) and 763 posts containing information of 32 sponsoring brands. The Instrack, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Azure ML and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests were done. The results indicate factors such as gender and country of origin of the athlete posted significantly affect engagement with the World Surf League Instagram page (quantitatively and qualitatively). Additionally, gender, country of origin, professional experience, and attractiveness of the athletes affect the personal engagement of their own Instagram pages (quantitatively and qualitatively). Thirdly, the brand sponsoring the post also affects the level of engagement (quantitatively and qualitatively). A holistic view of the event, the athletes competing, and the sponsoring brands further contributes through new literature.

Purpose: This study examines how social influences (need to belong and fear of missing out) and the perceived credibility of health claims affect the intention to purchase foods with health claims.Design/methodology/approach: Data were obtained from a web-based survey of 844 Spaniards aged 25 years and older, with sex and age quotas. Real product images with health claims contextualized the purchase intention questions, aiding respondents who often struggle to differentiate health from promotional claims.Findings: Both personal and social dimensions of fear of missing out (FoMO) influence the desire to belong to a healthy group. The intention to purchase food with health claims is also positively associated with the desire to belong. The results reflect the importance of FoMO and the need to belong in enhancing consumers’ tendency to purchase products with health claims. The results also reflect the importance of purchase intention in making health claims perceived as credible.Originality/value: This study integrates individual aspects (belief in the credibility of health claims) with social aspects (belonging and FoMO) to analyze the intention to purchase foods with health claims. Using authentic product images to aid consumer comprehension adds an innovative dimension, addressing a gap in consumer behavior research.