Purpose: Visual and textual narratives have long been recognized as stimuli for shaping tourism imaginaries, but the role of music is still to be explored. This study explores how tourism imaginaries of distant destinations are shaped through music.
\nMethods: An experimental design using video-elicitation and 23 semi-structured interviews were appropriate for examining sensory stimuli and imaginaries. Potential tourists to Ecuador consumed the same promotional video with three different music. Ecuador was selected for being a lesser-known country seen as an untamed destination by Western travellers. A deductive-inductive thematic analysis revealed both manifest and latent dimensions of tour-ism imaginaries.
\nResults: Different music paired with identical visuals generates contrasting tourism imaginaries of place, practices, and participants. Ecuador was perceived as a dangerous, peaceful, or vibrant place. Music also shaped imaginaries of tourism practices, leading participants to associate Ecuador with either active or relaxing experiences. As a novelty, the study shows that music can stimulate social awareness of locals’ and tourists’ roles and relations, by eliciting im-aginaries of either social detachment or connection with host communities.
\nImplications: Tourism marketers are advised to consider music in videos to shape tourism imaginaries and to care-fully select music when promoting lesser-known and distant destinations.
", "lang": { "id": "eng", "title": { "en": "English" } }, "type": { "id": "abstract", "title": { "de": "Abstract", "en": "Abstract" } } } ], "copyright": "Copyright (C) 2026 Authors", "creators": [ { "affiliations": [ { "id": "01vxfm326", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "01vxfm326", "scheme": "ror" }, { "identifier": "grid.17127.32", "scheme": "grid" }, { "identifier": "0000 0000 9234 5858", "scheme": "isni" } ], "name": "Corvinus University of Budapest" } ], "person_or_org": { "family_name": "Coronel Padilla", "given_name": "Monica", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "0000-0002-8062-4109", "scheme": "orcid" } ], "name": "Coronel Padilla, Monica", "type": "personal" }, "role": { "id": "contactperson", "title": { "de": "Kontaktperson", "en": "Contact person" } } }, { "affiliations": [ { "id": "01vxfm326", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "01vxfm326", "scheme": "ror" }, { "identifier": "grid.17127.32", "scheme": "grid" }, { "identifier": "0000 0000 9234 5858", "scheme": "isni" } ], "name": "Corvinus University of Budapest" } ], "person_or_org": { "family_name": "Irimi\u00e1s", "given_name": "Anna", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "0000-0003-0307-6556", "scheme": "orcid" } ], "name": "Irimi\u00e1s, Anna", "type": "personal" } } ], "description": "Submitted: April 2026 \u25aa 1st Revision Submitted: May 2026 \u25aa 2nd Revision Submitted: June 2026 \u25aa Accepted: June 2026 \u25aa Ref-ereed Anonymously
\nJEL Classification: O34, M31, M37
\nAuthor Contributions: Conceptualization, M.C.P. and A.I.; methodology, M.C.P. and A.I; software, M.C.P.; validation, M.C.P. and A.I..; formal analysis, M.C.P. and A.I.; investigation, M.C.P.; data curation, M.C.P. and A.I.; writing—original draft preparation, M.C.P. and A.I.; writing—review and editing, M.C.P. and A.I.; visualization, M.C.P.; supervision, A.I.; project administration, M.C.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "2529-1947", "scheme": "issn" } ], "languages": [ { "id": "eng", "title": { "en": "English" } } ], "publication_date": "2026-06-05", "publisher": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing", "resource_type": { "id": "publication-article", "title": { "de": "Zeitschriftenartikel", "en": "Journal article" } }, "rights": [ { "description": { "en": "" }, "icon": "cc-by-nc-nd-icon", "id": "cc-by-nc-nd-4.0", "props": { "scheme": "spdx", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode" }, "title": { "en": "Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International" } } ], "subjects": [ { "subject": "destination marketing" }, { "subject": "promotional videos" }, { "subject": "tourism advertising" }, { "subject": "perceived distance" }, { "subject": "narrative" } ], "title": "Influence of music on tourism imaginaries of distant destinations" }, "parent": { "access": { "owned_by": { "user": "29272" }, "settings": { "accept_conditions_text": null, "allow_guest_requests": false, "allow_user_requests": false, "secret_link_expiration": 0 } }, "communities": { "default": "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278", "entries": [ { "access": { "member_policy": "open", "members_visibility": "public", "record_submission_policy": "open", "review_policy": "closed", "visibility": "public" }, "children": { "allow": false }, "created": "2023-11-15T16:47:06.835740+00:00", "custom_fields": {}, "deletion_status": { "is_deleted": false, "status": "P" }, "id": "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278", "links": {}, "metadata": { "description": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing (JTHSM) is an international, open-access, multi-disciplinary, refereed (double blind peer-review) journal, aiming to promote and enhance research in tourism, heritage and services marketing.", "organizations": [ { "id": "00708jp83" } ], "title": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing", "type": { "id": "organization" }, "website": "https://www.jthsm.gr/" }, "revision_id": 4, "slug": "jthsm", "updated": "2023-11-15T17:00:36.134822+00:00" } ], "ids": [ "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278" ] }, "id": "22752857", "pids": { "doi": { "client": "datacite", "identifier": "10.5281/zenodo.22752857", "provider": "datacite" } } }, "pids": { "doi": { "client": "datacite", "identifier": "10.5281/zenodo.22752858", "provider": "datacite" }, "oai": { "identifier": "oai:zenodo.org:22752858", "provider": "oai" } }, "revision_id": 4, "stats": { "all_versions": { "data_volume": 8500580.0, "downloads": 20, "unique_downloads": 20, "unique_views": 51, "views": 56 }, "this_version": { "data_volume": 8500580.0, "downloads": 20, "unique_downloads": 20, "unique_views": 51, "views": 56 } }, "status": "published", "swh": {}, "updated": "2026-09-14T18:16:41.176231+00:00", "versions": { "index": 1, "is_latest": true } }