Jie Wei

Digital visual marketing increasingly relies on aesthetically modified social media content to attract consumers, yet such practices may also create authenticity risks when online representations are compared with actual experiences. This study examines how four visual modification cues in destination photos—light–shadow atmosphere, tone enhancement, framing angle, and focus prominence—shape post-visit destination trust, value co-destruction, and revisit intention, and whether persuasion knowledge moderates these effects. Survey data from 572 tourists who viewed Chongqing-related social media photos before visiting the city were analyzed using structural equation modeling, bootstrap mediation analysis, and hierarchical regression. Tone enhancement, framing angle, and focus prominence increased destination trust, whereas light–shadow atmosphere did not. Light–shadow atmosphere, tone enhancement, and framing angle increased value co-destruction, whereas focus prominence did not. Destination trust positively affected revisit intention, while value co-destruction had a negative effect. The two mediators operated as largely independent evaluative paths, with the trust pathway exerting the stronger effect. Persuasion knowledge weakened trust gains and amplified value co-destruction. These findings show that digital visual marketing produces asymmetric post-experience outcomes and highlight the need to balance aesthetic optimization with authentic representation when designing social media marketing content.