The Influence of Digital Marketing, City Brand Communication, and Tourist Experience on the Effectiveness of Cirebon City Branding as a Tourism Destination

Abstract

The recovery of the tourism sector in the post-pandemic period requires city branding strategies that are not only well planned but also supported by empirical findings relevant to destination conditions. This study aims to examine the influence of digital marketing, city brand communication, and tourist experience on the effectiveness of city branding in Cirebon Regency as a tourism destination. The research applies a quantitative approach with an associative research design. Data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 156 tourist respondents and analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) method. The results of the analysis indicate that digital marketing, city brand communication, and tourist experience each have a positive and significant effect on the effectiveness of city branding. Furthermore, the three variables simultaneously contribute significantly to explaining the variation in city branding effectiveness with a coefficient of determination of 75.7%. Tourist experience is proven to be the most dominant factor influencing city branding effectiveness, indicating the importance of synergy between digital strategies, brand consistency, and the quality of tourism experiences.