The influence of cognitive and emotional engagement on digital content marketing in the tourism industry

Abstract

This study investigates how millennials respond to digital content marketing in the tourism industry. The measurement is based on the respondent's emotional and cognitive engagement with the presented content. People generally use social media for tourism purposes, and it quickly changes customer behavior when traveling in the digital era. Traditional content marketing has now turned into digital content marketing. The more people view digital content, the more it affects customer engagement. It is critical to investigate how social media marketing can promote destinations in Indonesia, particularly as the country attempts to improve its tourism industry, which is currently suffering significant losses due to the pandemic. Digital content marketing on social media often facilitates customer engagement, but none of these trends has been thoroughly studied. There is a need for recommendations for tourism organizations. Also, customer engagement is widely discussed in education, psychology, and work, but it is still rare to find a more detailed discussion in the marketing field. This study conducted a pre-experimental survey with 132 respondents and applied Structural Equation Modelling to test the extent of customer engagement. The results show that digital content marketing has the most substantial influence on emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement has the most influence on planning trip behaviors. This study can contribute to digital content marketing concepts, consumer engagement, and tourism-related literature.