Examining the Influence of Celebrity Endorsement on Tourism Destination Image: Evidence from Southern Nigeria

This study examines the influence of celebrity endorsement on tourism destination image formation among potential domestic travellers in southern Nigeria. Celebrity endorsement has emerged as an increasingly popular destination marketing tool globally, yet its application and effectiveness in the Nigerian domestic tourism context remain underexplored in academic literature. A quantitative research design is adopted with online questionnaires administered to 350 respondents aged 18 to 45 in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Enugu, sampled as representative of Nigeria's digitally active domestic tourism market. An extended destination image model is tested in which celebrity endorsement attributes of attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, and cultural congruence serve as predictors of cognitive and affective destination image components and, subsequently, visitation intentions. Structural equation modelling with bootstrapped confidence intervals is applied. Findings reveal that cultural congruence between the celebrity and the destination is the strongest predictor of positive affective destination image formation, while attractiveness demonstrates a stronger effect on cognitive image. Celebrity endorsements featuring explicitly Nigerian content creators are rated as significantly more influential than foreign celebrity endorsements on domestic travel intentions. The study recommends that state tourism boards strategically engage culturally relevant Nigerian celebrities and micro-influencers as cost-effective image ambassadors, with measurement frameworks to evaluate campaign return on investment. Keywords: celebrity endorsement, destination image, domestic tourism, Nigeria, marketing influence