Designing and Developing a Model of Destination Brand Love in Tourism Industry of Iran (Case Study: Guilan Province)

The purpose of this study was to design and develop a model of the antecedents and consequences of Destination Brand Love for Guilan province. The present study was a qualitative research that is based on thematic analysis with using interviewing tools. The research is based on Guilan province as a destination for tourism and the statistical population of the study includes 12 professors and experts of tourism industry in the country. Snowball sampling method and theme analysis technique was used for data analysis in this research. After analyzing the data, 7 factors: brand experience, brand service quality, brand infrastructures, brand media communication, brand authenticity, brand image and brand trust were identified as causal factors of destination brand love. That will be reinforced if the love for the destination brand exists. Also, three factors: loyalty, positive word-of-mouth advertising, and willingness to pay more were identified as consequences of Destination Brand Love.