THE ROLE OF CONSUMER-BRAND ENGAGEMENT IN TOURISM CONSUMPTION: FROM USER-GENERATED CONTENT TO MY GENERATED CONTENT

With the rise of Web 2.0 and digital content marketing consumers are increasingly interested in sharing their experiences with others by implementing real brand-related citizenship behaviors (e.g., sharing travel experiences or brand-related experiences on social networks). Drawing on the customer engagement ecosystem model (Maslowska et al., 2016), this study aims to highlight the role social aspects of consumption play in predicting consumer brand engagement (CE), specifically, if both expo-sure to others actors’ purchasing behavior (OAB) and social visibility of consumption (SVC) might in-fluence consumers’ brand dialogue behaviors (BDB) through CE. We conducted a cross-sectional sur-vey in which participants (N = 250) completed an online questionnaire about tourism brands. We per-formed a mediation analysis using a structural equation modeling approach. Results suggest that both OAB and SVC might influence BDB, through the mediation of CE. In our model, CE partially media-tes the effect of OAB on BDB, and it completely mediates that of SVC on BDB. Consumers who per-ceive the tourism brand chosen as more socially visible will probably have higher levels of CE, and, in turn, will exhibit more BDB. The more consumers believe that other people choose a specific tourism brand, the more they engage with it and the more they show BDB. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.