Abstract

In response to the growing complexity of consumer choices, there has been a noticeable shift towards experiential marketing in travel destinations. This study focuses on Catalonia, Spain, and Veneto, Italy, examining how tourism institutions adapted communication to emphasise experiential appeals in the pre-travel phase. Using a content analysis of posts from Twitter-X, this study examines communication trends in aligning tourism products with the tourist experience, using pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic periods as reference points. Although there have been attempts to diversify product categories, pre-pandemic categories remain dominant, limiting the comprehensive portrayal of tourism product offerings. This research proposes a framework for aiding pre-travel communication planning, advocating for the alignment of online branding of destinations with the projected destinations’ image based on experience dimensions and components. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).