Purpose: This study aims to explore the trends and topics in destination branding research, with a specific focus on destination brand equity (DBE). Using topic modelling analysis, the study identifies key research themes and evaluates their evolution over time, assessing whether DBE is among the trending topics. Methods: The research analyses 1,143 article abstracts retrieved from the WoS Core Collection, covering publications from 2001 to 2022. A text-mining approach using MALLET Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was employed to identify 50 distinct topics within the corpus. Data were visualized using Pivot Tables, Excel, and VOSviewer to analyse topic trends and distributions. Results: The analysis revealed that DBE is a steady and prominent topic in destination branding research, along with city branding and social media marketing, while topics like website content and marketing concepts are declining. The study categorizes topics into popular, under-researched, and emerging areas based on their proportions and trends. Implications: The findings highlight the importance of integrating DBE with emerging digital trends to enhance destination branding strategies. Future research should explore cross-cultural comparisons and apply DBE models to diverse geographic contexts. This study offers insights for academics and practitioners to guide future studies and destination branding initiatives.

SUBMITTED: NOV 2024, REVISION SUBMITTED: JAN 2025, ACCEPTED: MAR 2025, REFEREED ANONYMOUSLY, PUBLISHED ONLINE: 15 JUNE 2025 JEL Classification: M3, M31, F61

Refereed article (double blind peer-review), published at Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing (Platinum Open Access journal).