The purpose of this study is to understand whether and how destination brand love relates to wellbeing of a tourist and a destination. Destination brand love is strong and mainly positively charged relationship between a tourist and a destination. This love happens in different ways for different persons, typically including identification and satisfaction to the destination brand (Aro et al. 2018). Brand love includes many positive elements for the destination, such as loyalty, positive word-of-mouth and resistance to negative information. Regardless of brand love’s positive offerings, it has not been widely studied in the context of tourism destinations.

Qualitative methods of data gathering and analysis are utilized in this PhD study. Context is a destination brand Ylläs in Finnish Lapland. In first part, semi-structured interviews were employed to get an overall picture of destination brand love and it was noted to include interest in destination brand’s wellbeing (Aro et al. 2018). In second part, abductive reasoning and Fecebook data of the destination were used to understand the interactive nature of brand love and a mix of brand-defensive strategies were noted among loving consumers, when wellbeing of the brand and/or its people was threatened (Aro et al. 2023). In third part, based on a rich data of guestbook entries and semi-structured interviews we (will) conceptualize the bodily nature of destination brand love, which helps to better understand relationship between tourist’s wellbeing and brand love.

In the core of responsible tourism is tourists? willingness to be more caring, aware and just (Wheeller 1991). Hopeful tourism arises from the worry of other people’s wellbeing and is related to hoping good for others (Pritchard et al. 2011). This study suggests that by understanding destination brand love and it’s wellbeing aspects, we can find new ways to empower responsible and hopeful tourism? loveful tourism.