Promotional videos have been increasingly adopted in social media marketing. Given that video production incurs high costs, evaluating the effectiveness of promotional videos is necessary. This research examines the effect of promotional video on visit intention through affective and cognitive destination images, respectively. Furthermore, grounded in the theoretical reasoning of social ties and persuasive intent, the effects of promotional videos disseminated by different sources (i.e., unknown users, friends, and marketers) are compared. Two experimental studies were carried out with 200 participants in Study 1 and 243 participants in Study 2. Study 1 revealed that the presence of promotional video induces visit intention through affective and cognitive destination images. Study 2 found that promotional videos disseminated by friends (versus unknown users) are more effective to induce visit intention because of positive cognitive destination image, while the video effects are indifferent between marketers and users. Meaningful implications are provided for destination marketers.
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