Extended Abstract
Introduction
The tourism industry is a key driver of economic and social growth and is of paramount importance to destinations. However, increasing competition in this sector has intensified the need to effectively attract potential tourists. In this competitive environment, tourist engagement, which includes strategies designed to inspire, inform, and encourage destination choice, is a crucial factor in creating awareness, trust, and loyalty to the destination brand. With the expansion of online platforms, the concept of customer engagement has gained additional significance in the tourism industry, as a major proportion of interactions concerning destinations now occur online. Engagement also serves as a vital indicator of advertising campaign effectiveness, influences desired consumer behaviors, and contributes directly to the co-creation of destination image. Despite the recognized importance of customer engagement, research in the tourism field remains limited. Customer engagement is strongly influenced by its context and must be examined across diverse settings. Additionally, previous research has underscored the importance of identifying engagement drivers, calling for new studies that explore customer engagement through digital user interfaces, and suggesting that antecedents be examined within a comprehensive, multifaceted model. While studies have identified antecedents of customer engagement across varied categories, crucial factors, particularly those regarding digital platforms and the role of influencers, remain insufficiently explored. Addressing these research gaps, the present study focuses on examining the antecedents of customer engagement within the social media context, with a strategic emphasis on the roles of influencers and digital platforms, using Communication Effectiveness Model to acknowledge the persuasive power of these modern digital tools and to deepen the existing understanding of the effective strategic factors in this domain.

Methodology
The present study was conducted qualitatively and the data obtained from semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis technique. The statistical population of this study is academic experts in the fields of marketing and tourism as well as hotel and travel agency managers, some of whom were selected through purposive sampling. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached to ensure that the sample size was sufficient and that the collected data reflected content validity. From the 12th to the 14th interview, it was determined that no new insights were added to the research, and for this reason, the sampling process was stopped. Then, the data obtained from the interviews were transcribed and analyzed with thematic analysis technique using MAXQDA 2020 software. The reliability of the study was also measured and confirmed by the test-retest reliability and the intra-subject agreement methods.

Results and Discussion
By conducting thematic analysis on the data obtained from the interviews, 700 initial codes were extracted, which were systematically categorized into 5 main themes and 21 sub-themes. These findings confirmed that destination engagement is a multifaceted phenomenon affected by five key strategic factors. The first factor identified was the role of Social Media Influencers, who act as modern marketers and sources of advertising messages. The study determined that to be effective, they should possess diverse characteristics including expertise, attractiveness, credibility and trustworthiness, inspiration, content production skills, and congruity. These results are consistent with and expand upon established models of source credibility and source attractiveness. The second key antecedent is the Social Media Platform Experience. This was confirmed as a multidimensional construct comprising sub-themes such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, visual appeal, perceived risk, perceived popularity, and perceived interactions. This finding advances the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by applying it to the tourism context and focusing on the platform experience as a driver of destination engagement. The research further revealed that Destination Awareness was prominently identified as an influence on tourist engagement. However, unlike many previous studies that treated this variable as one-dimensional, the current study defined it as having three distinct dimensions: prior knowledge and perceptions of the destination, previous destination visit experience, and social validation. The definition and articulation of these three dimensions is considered one of the primary contributions of this research. Finally, the findings introduced Tourist Psychological Characteristics as internal push factors and Destination's Tourist Friendliness as external pull factors affecting tourist engagement. For the latter, dimensions identified include tourism attractions and experiences, destination value proposition, macro-environmental factors, infrastructure and tourism services, and access to destination information. These results align with and expand upon the theory of push and pull factors in tourism.

Conclusion
The present study aimed to identify strategic factors affecting tourist destination engagement and, in response, developed a conceptual framework of its antecedents, focusing specifically on the role of social media influencers. The distinctive feature of this research lies in its use of a qualitative approach to construct a comprehensive and coherent model from the integrated perspectives of academic experts and tourism industry professionals. The resulting model is highly valuable because it not only confirms the key role of influencers as a modern marketing strategy and explains the specific factors that increase their influence, but also holistically integrates other crucial antecedents regarding tourists and destinations into a single, comprehensive framework. The findings synthesized five main strategic themes—social media influencers, social media platform experience, destination's tourist-friendliness, tourist psychological characteristics, and destination awareness. In essence, the study revealed that tourist's psychological engagement is a complex process influenced by multiple strategic factors, which can be grouped into three overarching categories: influencer-related factors, tourist-related factors, and destination-related factors. By achieving this, the present study successfully addressed the gaps in the literature regarding the lack of a coherent qualitative model of destination engagement and also provided deep insights for developing effective strategies to enhance tourist engagement in the digital age.