The tourism sector has experienced notable growth, largely fueled by consumers’ growing desire to explore a variety of destinations. This revitalized interest in travel highlights the necessity of cultivating enduring connections between tourism marketers and travelers. Crafting effective strategies to understand and attract tourists is essential for the long-term prosperity of travel destinations. Drawing upon embodied cognition theory, this research explores how various dimensions of brand experience influence tourists’ emotional attachment to destinations, conceptualized as destination brand love. It further assesses the mediating role of tourist happiness within this relationship. the data were gathered through an online questionnaire from 330 tourists who had visited destinations in China. The analysis, conducted using Smart-PLS, confirmed significant direct effects among brand experience, tourist happiness, and brand love. These findings yield practical insights for destination marketers, offering guidance on how to deepen tourist engagement and strengthen emotional bonds with travel locations.