Artificial Intelligence Generated Content-Enabled Smart Marketing Model for Tourism Destinations: Evidence from Xi’an Tang Paradise, China

Amid the global wave of digital transformation, generative artificial intelligence (AIGC) has emerged as a critical force reshaping the tourism industry. Drawing on platform ecosystem theory as its analytical framework, this study conducts a qualitative case study of Xi’an Tang Paradise. Based on interviews and multiple sources of textual data, it develops a four-dimensional analytical framework for AIGC-enabled destination smart marketing, encompassing intelligent content generation, immersive experience interaction, data-integrated operations, and collaborative value ecosystem as four subsystems. The findings reveal that the model operates with AIGC technology as its infrastructure, connecting multiple participants through a standardized and scalable content supply architecture, and employs data integration mechanisms as governance tools to coordinate stakeholder behavior. The alignment among subsystems determines the operational efficacy of the overall marketing system, while the sustained functioning of multi-actor participation depends on the effective coordination of divergent interests by governance mechanisms. This study enriches our understanding of AIGC-driven transformation in destination marketing and provides a systematic analytical framework for future research.