Purpose Historical figure avatars (HFAs) have emerged as compelling tools in cultural and tourism marketing to embody cultural heritage and engage tourists, yet limited research has examined how different HFA form styles influence tourists’ evaluation. This study aims to address this gap by clarifying how HFA form styles (human-like vs. anime-like) are most effective for different types of involvement with historical figures (situational vs. enduring), and how these HFA form styles align with distinct nostalgia advertising appeals (personal vs. historical). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on constructive authenticity theory, we conducted four studies to systematically examine how HFAs influence tourist evaluations. Findings The results reveal that human-like HFAs lead to higher tourist evaluations than anime-like HFAs, with constructive authenticity serving as a key mediator. Additionally, historical figure involvement (enduring vs. situational) and nostalgia advertising type (historical vs. personal) moderate this effect. Specifically, anime-like HFAs generate higher evaluations among tourists with enduring involvement, whereas human-like HFAs generate higher evaluations among tourists with situational involvement. Meanwhile, human-like HFAs paired with historical nostalgia appeals and anime-like HFAs paired with personal nostalgia appeals further enhance tourist evaluations. Originality/value This study provides insights into how destination managers can leverage HFAs to develop effective advertising strategies.
Guo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.