Generative AI adoption shapes green destination branding through warmth and anthropomorphism

Destination management organisations are rapidly turning to generative artificial intelligence to engage tourists, but how this technology shapes a destination’s sustainable brand has remained largely unexamined. A new study published in Discover Sustainability proposes and tests a sequential mediation model that links generative AI adoption to green destination branding through two layers of psychological mechanisms: brand image, self-brand congruity, positive experience and brand authenticity on one side, and destination anthropomorphism and perceived warmth on the other.

The researchers surveyed 400 international tourists who had engaged with AI-powered destination platforms and analysed the data using partial least squares structural equation modelling in SmartPLS 4.0. The results showed that generative AI adoption significantly strengthened brand image, self-brand congruity and positive experience. Each of these three factors, in turn, activated destination anthropomorphism, the tendency for tourists to perceive a destination as human-like. Anthropomorphism then strongly predicted perceived warmth, which fully mediated the pathway from AI adoption to green destination branding.

Notably, one proposed link did not hold: generative AI adoption did not significantly affect brand authenticity. This suggests that while AI interactions can make a destination feel more personable and emotionally warm, they may not, on their own, convince travellers that the destination’s green brand is genuine. The full mediation through perceived warmth indicates that the emotional quality of humanised AI encounters, rather than AI adoption itself, is what carries the branding effect.

The study integrates AI adoption, humanisation and sustainable branding into a single framework and offers destination management organisations actionable guidance for deploying AI in ways that build, rather than erode, green brand credibility. As a survey-based model tested on tourists already familiar with AI-powered platforms, the findings describe associations within this population rather than experimentally established causal effects, and the authors note the work is an early-access version subject to further edits before the final version of record.

Subject of Research: How generative AI adoption by destination management organisations influences green destination branding via anthropomorphism and perceived warmth

Article Title: Generative artificial intelligence adoption shapes green destination branding through destination anthropomorphism and perceived warmth

Article References: Hussain, S., Masood, A., Haq, F. U., Khattak, R. Y., & Sheikh, A. A. (2026). Generative artificial intelligence adoption shapes green destination branding through destination anthropomorphism and perceived warmth. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04500-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04500-2

Keywords: generative AI, destination branding, sustainable tourism, anthropomorphism, perceived warmth, brand image, self-brand congruity, brand authenticity, PLS-SEM, destination management organisations, tourist behaviour, Discover Sustainability