Harnessing Digital Consumer Insights for Strategic Innovation in Green Tourism Marketing: Evidence from Garut Regency, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper examines how digital consumer insights can be converted into strategic innovation for green tourism marketing in Garut Regency, Indonesia. The study uses a descriptive survey design involving 302 respondents and is complemented by qualitative interpretation of open-ended responses on constraints, expectations, and recommended improvements in destination promotion. The results show that tourist discovery is strongly social-first and search-oriented: social media is the dominant source of destination information, followed by search engines, while short-form videos, visitor reviews, testimonials, and high-quality visual content are the most influential content formats. The findings also indicate that many respondents are willing, or potentially willing, to pay more for credible green tourism experiences, suggesting that sustainability can function as a market-based value proposition rather than merely a promotional theme. At the same time, weaknesses remain in official website performance, information integration, content consistency, and community-linked digital engagement. The paper argues that consumer insights should be treated not only as descriptive market information but also as a strategic basis for innovation in content design, platform management, integrated digital touchpoints, and community co-creation.