Abstract
This study aims to examine the role of exposure to travel-related content posted by friends on Facebook in triggering the intention to visit a tourist destination (IVTD). The study further examines how travel-related content exposure is linked with IVTD, and why some travel consumers, unlike others, tend to trigger more IVTD in response to travel-related content exposure. The sample of the present study included 295 travel consumers who are users of Facebook in Pakistan. The hypothesized model is tested using PROCESS macros in SPSS 24.0. The findings of the study reveal that travel-related content exposure is positively associated with IVTD. The benign envy mediates the relationship between exposure to travel-related content posted by friends on Facebook and IVTD, but the online social identity moderated the relationship between exposure to travel-related content posted by friends on Facebook and IVTD such that high online social identity strengthened the impact of travel-related content exposure on IVTD, thus highlighting the pivotal role of online social identity in the comparison process. The study contributes to the tourism literature on social media and has practical implications for social media travel managers and advertisers. The travel managers and advertisers should develop marketing and communication strategies considering friends’ communications on Facebook as a factor that can influence travel consumers’ behavior and decision making.
Highlights
Tourism industry has become a trillion-dollar industry in this contemporary world
This study examined the role of travel-related content exposure posted by friends on Facebook in triggering the intention to visit a tourist destination (IVTD)
We investigated how travel-related content exposure is related to IVTD and why some travel consumers would trigger more IVTD than others in response to travelrelated content exposure
Summary
Tourism industry has become a trillion-dollar industry in this contemporary world. It boosts the growth of a country and contributes to the national gross domestic product (GDP), offers employment to millions of people linked with this industry directly or indirectly. World Travel and Tourism Council (2013) reported that tourism industry has surpassed other industries such as manufacturing and service sector in terms of revenue. According to World Travel and Tourism Council (2017), Pakistan significantly emerged as a tourist destination and “direct contribution of travel and tourism to Pakistan’s GDP in 2016 was US$7.6 billion (PKR 793.0 billion), constituting 2.7% of the total GDP. Tourism industry contributes significantly in the growth of an economy (Hua et al, 2017; Ramayah et al, 2011)
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