ThinkTrip consulting is grounded in original research — peer-reviewed, quantitatively rigorous, and designed with direct application for destination marketers and DMO leaders. Not borrowed frameworks. Not industry white papers. Real studies, real data, real implications.
All three studies were conducted or co-led by Bryan Lavin and are designed with direct applicability for destination marketers, DMO leaders, and tourism operators. The methodology is academic. The outcomes are immediately actionable.
JWU × CETYS Universidad · TRVL 3035 · N=111 pre-trip / N=11 post-trip
A pre/post perception study examining how Northeast U.S. travelers imagine Ensenada before visiting — and how that perception shifts after direct experience. Grounded in the Cognitive-Affective-Conative (CAC) model and a validated 27-item, 7-category perception index, the study surfaces dramatic shifts in wine awareness, culinary expectations, and cultural perception with direct strategic implications for the destination’s DMO and tourism operators.
Key takeaway: Ensenada’s wine region dramatically outperforms expectations once experienced — but is virtually unknown beforehand. This is a marketing problem, not a product problem.
Wine as a purchase factor jumped +43.2 points after direct exposure to Valle de Guadalupe — the single largest item-level shift in the study.
Restaurant variety for dietary needs scored just 25.0 post-trip — lowest item in the study and a critical brand liability for a destination marketing gastronomy.
Geography held strong across both samples (70.5 → 72.2) — confirming the landscape as a durable, reliable asset.
Cruise port dependency identified as the destination’s most significant structural barrier to independent visitor growth.
DBA Dissertation · Johnson & Wales University · N=142+ · SPSS Analysis
This doctoral study fills a critical gap in tourism marketing literature: while the impact of user-generated content (UGC) on travel decisions is well-documented, almost nothing existed on what motivates travelers to actually create and share content with destination brands. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior — extended to include empowerment and technical acumen — the study analyzed U.S.-based traveler responses using stepwise and enter-method regression to identify the key predictors of UGC co-creation.
Key takeaway: Empowerment is the most powerful predictor of UGC co-creation. Destinations that make visitors feel capable, invited, and equipped to share — rather than just asked — generate dramatically more authentic content.
| Hyp. | Variable | Result |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | Positive attitude → willingness to co-create UGC | Supported |
| H2 | Social norms → willingness to co-create UGC | Supported |
| H3 | Low perceived barriers → willingness to co-create UGC | Partial |
| H4 | Technical acumen → willingness to co-create UGC | Supported |
| H5 | Empowerment → willingness to co-create UGC | Supported |
Empowerment drives co-creation more than any other variable. Clear prompts, specific instructions, and making visitors feel capable — not just asked — is the most effective UGC lever.
53% of customers want specific instructions on what to create, but most brands assume motivation is enough. The gap is significant.
Age is a moderating factor, but empowerment predicts UGC co-creation across all age groups — making it the most universally applicable lever.
International Collaborative Study · N = 1,960 Residents · Quantitative
This collaborative study identifies which residents within a tourism destination are most likely to act as organic micro-influencers — and what motivates them to promote their destination on social media. Using cluster analysis on a large-scale resident dataset, the research profiles three distinct resident types and provides DMOs with a practical framework for identifying, engaging, and sustaining authentic community advocates.
Key takeaway: Approximately 63% of a destination’s residential population has the potential to become a micro-influencer — but only if DMOs know who they are and how to activate them.
Active Ambassadors are your highest-value segment. Already recommending, already proud — DMOs should identify and formalize relationships with this group first.
Homegrown Explorers are the biggest opportunity. Engaged with the destination, positive about tourism, but not yet sharing. The right empowerment strategy unlocks this group.
Resident-generated content outperforms professional campaigns on authenticity and trust — and 63% of your community already has the potential to contribute.
Active Ambassadors skew female and rural — a finding that challenges common assumptions about where authentic destination advocates live and who they are.
Validated, peer-reviewed instruments adapted from published tourism and consumer behavior literature. All items calibrated to 0–100 perception indexes for consistent comparability across destinations and time periods.
The Ensenada study captures the gap between imagined and lived destination experience — the most strategically useful form of perception data available to a DMO.
Data analyzed using SPSS with correlation matrices, stepwise regression, and enter-method linear regression. Cronbach alpha reliability testing applied to all composite variables.
Research anchored in established academic frameworks — the CAC model for destination perception, and the Theory of Planned Behavior (modified to include empowerment and technical acumen) for UGC motivation.
Both studies are designed to be repeatable. The perception index is portable and adaptable to any destination. The UGC motivation framework can be deployed by any DMO seeking to improve content campaign performance.
Student reflections, peer guide evaluations, and in-destination observations add operational texture that pure quantitative data cannot capture.
Most destination consulting is experience-based. That’s not nothing — experience matters. But experience without data produces strategies built on assumptions, and assumptions are expensive when they’re wrong.
ThinkTrip’s research background means every engagement is informed by more than intuition. When we make a recommendation, we can show you why. When we identify a gap in your destination’s brand perception, we can quantify it. When we suggest a UGC strategy, it’s grounded in a study that tested what actually moves travelers to participate.
That’s the difference between advice and analysis — and it’s what separates a ThinkTrip engagement from a consultant who has strong opinions and a lot of air miles.
“Destinations that invest in annual perception tracking gain not just data — but a feedback loop that connects marketing strategy to lived experience in real time.”
ThinkTrip doesn’t cite industry reports and call it research. Both studies were designed, conducted, and analyzed by Bryan Lavin — producing original findings specific to tourism and directly applicable to DMO strategy.
The research is peer-reviewed and methodologically sound — and interpreted by someone who has run sales strategies at a CVB, led professional development for 4,000+ tourism professionals, and sat in the rooms where destination decisions get made.
The Ensenada perception framework isn’t a one-off. It’s a portable methodology ThinkTrip can deploy for any destination — producing credible, benchmarkable data that justifies funding and builds board confidence.
An examination of the gap between DMO strategic priorities and stakeholder perception of value — tourism operators, residents, elected officials, and the business community.
A portable, validated instrument for measuring the gap between a destination’s intended brand identity and how it is actually perceived by visitors, residents, and industry partners.
A follow-on study examining real-world outcomes of empowerment-based UGC campaign strategies applied across multiple destination types and market sizes.
ThinkTrip can design and execute a custom perception study, stakeholder research program, or UGC strategy audit — using the same rigorous methodology that produced these studies, scaled to your destination’s size and budget.
ThinkTrip specializes in destination perception research — studies that examine how travelers, residents, and business communities understand and experience a place.
That might mean measuring how traveler perceptions shift before, during, and after a visit. It might mean understanding how a local community views tourism's impact on their daily lives. Or how business owners see their role in the visitor economy. By removing assumption and capturing clear insight from the stakeholders who matter most, destination marketing organizations can stop guessing and start building solutions designed for sustainability and long-term stewardship.
Destination perception studies take many forms — from advisory panels to large-scale quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews — and ThinkTrip brings the full toolkit. Every engagement is academically grounded, benchmarkable over time, and delivered with data visualization designed for real-world distribution: board presentations, community meetings, grant applications, and strategic plans.
This isn't data for data's sake. Founder Bryan J. Lavin designs every ThinkTrip study to directly inform marketing and branding decisions, infrastructure priorities, team deployment, and the long-term stewardship goals that define where a destination is actually headed.
Most visitor surveys are built to confirm what a destination marketing organization already suspects. ThinkTrip research is built to find what you don't know yet.
Every ThinkTrip study is academically grounded — meaning the survey instruments are built from validated quantitative scales, not questions assembled quickly to get a fast answer. The methodology is backed by science, which means the findings hold up: to boards, to funders, to community stakeholders who need to trust the data before they act on it. ThinkTrip founder Bryan J. Lavin brings over a decade of peer-reviewed tourism research to every engagement, ensuring your study is built to the same standard as academic literature — while remaining fully actionable for your team.
But the rigor doesn't mean the results are dry. ThinkTrip uses destination research to fuel storytelling — because stories are the currency of destination marketing. What makes a place meaningful to residents? What surprises visitors once they actually arrive? What gap exists between what you're promising and what people are experiencing? The data finds those answers. The story makes them actionable.
Every ThinkTrip study is unique to your destination, benchmarkable for future comparison, and delivered with visualization that makes the findings accessible to every stakeholder who needs to understand what the data means for them.