Strategic distance and hotel popularity: Moderating effects of brand positioning

Jun Yu, Jaehyun You, Jungwon Lee, Department of Digital Management, Korea University, South Korea, Department of Digital Management, Division of Convergence Business, College of Global Business, Korea University, South Korea, Basic Science Research Institute, Chungbuk National University, South Korea

Tourism and Hospitality Research

Published online on December 22, 2025

Abstract

Tourism and Hospitality Research, Ahead of Print.
This study investigates how hotel distinctiveness influences popularity in the hospitality industry. Distinctiveness, defined as the strategic divergence from close competitors, has shown mixed effects on performance in prior research. To address this, we ...