Residents’ engagement in developing destination mascots: a cognitive appraisal theory-based perspective

ABSTRACTABSTRACTDestination mascots have attracted some research interest, but more needs to be done. This study aims to explore destination mascots from a cognitive appraisal theory-based perspective. The results showed that an ideal destination mascot consisted of five characteristics: local representation and engagement, signature items and images, future, cuteness and fun, and tradition. "Local representation and engagement" and "cuteness and fun" were found to influence residents' community citizenship behavior through emotions. "Future" directly influenced community citizenship behavior, but this relationship was subject to moderation by place identity. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a deeper understanding of destination mascots.KEYWORDS: Destination mascotpersonalityemotionscommunity citizenship behaviorcognitive appraisal theory AcknowledgmentsThe ethics application has been approved by the College of Professional and Continuing Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThe work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant (BHM-2022-255 (E)) from the College of Professional and Continuing Education, an affiliate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.