PurposeThe current research prioritizes the dimensions of a higher-order customer engagement construct in the tourism destination context in order of their relative importance as perceived by tourists to provide meaningful insights to the tourism industry player.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 429 tourists' from selected tourist destinations. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used for data analysis using SPSS. The scale items were prioritized through hybrid evidence-based modeling using the RIDIT-GRA (Relative to an Identified Distribution and Grey Relational Analysis, respectively) approach.FindingsThe prioritization of customer engagement scale items is done through RIDIT analysis and is verified through GRA. The rankings of two independent methodologies show a 93% correlation, thereby ensuring the ranking's robustness.Practical implicationsPrioritizing customer engagement scale items may assist destination managers in strategy formulation to ensure tourists' high-level loyalty transcending purchase. The findings help develop key response areas (KRA's) for effective destination brand management.Originality/valueSuch precedence analysis of customer engagement scale items has not been done in the tourism studies yet. Also, the present study verified the results by incorporating two independent methodologies, thus providing more valid results.