Brand pilgrimage in fashion and beauty tourism

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine how branded retail environments become embedded within tourism as symbolic travel anchors. It introduces the concept of brand pilgrimage to explain how digitally mediated retail spaces become ritualised tourism destinations through youth influence, omnichannel engagement and family travel planning. Design/methodology/approach An inductive qualitative design was adopted using three semi-structured focus groups with 12 tweens (aged 9–12) and follow-up interviews with six parents. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to explore how branded retail experiences become integrated into family tourism practices. Findings Brand pilgrimage operates through an interconnected process linking algorithmic visibility, anticipatory ritualisation, household negotiation, in-store performance and memory circulation. Omnichannel ecosystems generate desire before travel, while tweens influence destination evaluation and itinerary planning through digitally mediated engagement. Retail visits become performative and socially meaningful experiences that extend into post-visit sharing, reinforcing future travel aspirations. The findings also reveal variation in participation, highlighting differences between active and passive engagement and gendered patterns of anticipation and performance. Originality/value This paper introduces brand pilgrimage as an analytical framework for understanding how youth-led, platform-mediated practices may position branded retail environments as components of contemporary tourism systems. Rather than proposing a universally applicable model, this study identifies the conditions under which branded retail environments may become travel anchors within family tourism.