MARKETING INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC RETURN IN DESTINATION PROMOTION: LINKING DIGITAL BRANDING STRATEGIES TO VISITOR SPENDING AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACT IN UZBEKISTAN

National tourism authorities and destination marketing organizations increasingly justify branding and digital promotion budgets by their expected contribution to visitor arrivals and economic growth, yet the link between specific marketing activities and measurable economic outcomes is rarely tested empirically, particularly in emerging destinations. Uzbekistan has invested heavily in destination branding, digital storytelling, and influencer-driven promotion as part of its tourism development strategy, but no systematic evidence connects these marketing investments to visitor spending patterns or regional economic impact. This proposal outlines a mixed-methods doctoral study that integrates destination marketing effectiveness research with tourism economics to examine how different promotional strategies translate into visitor spending and downstream economic contribution. The study combines econometric analysis of marketing expenditure, visitor arrivals, and spending data with a visitor survey capturing exposure to specific campaigns and channels, alongside stakeholder interviews with destination marketing organizations and tourism enterprises. The research aims to produce an evidence-based framework connecting marketing investment decisions to economic return, contributing both to destination marketing scholarship and to tourism economics literature on an underexamined Central Asian case.