A bottom-up approach to sustainable destination brand equity: The antecedent role of sustainability communication

The purpose of this paper is to understand the development of sustainable destination brand equity by examining the interrelationships among its key variables and considering loyalty as the final result of the process. This work also seeks to analyze the antecedent role of sustainability communication because of the significant effects of communication practices on brand equity. Through the integration of sustainability communication, this research extends brand equity theory by embedding environmental, cultural, social, and economic associations into the brand knowledge structure and by emphasizing the promotion of sustainable practices as a core mechanism of brand building. To empirically test the proposed conceptual framework, data were collected from destination residents, a key stakeholder group in destination branding and sustainable tourism development. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis because of its appropriateness for prediction-oriented research and theory development involving novel constructs. The findings reveal that brand loyalty is directly influenced by perceived sustainable quality (β = 0.388) and sustainable brand image (β = 0.114). Sustainability communication is found to predict awareness (β = 0.558), image (β = 0.358), and perceived quality (β = 0.237), all of which are significantly related.