Millennials’ interactions with social media content on cruise tourism

Abstract

Purpose The cruise industry has used technology to attract more millennials than ever before. The progression of social media has transformed the way young individuals gather information for their travel decision-making. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effects of the characteristics of social media – Instagram – on millennials’ trust in and attitudes toward social media content and their behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered survey was designed to test the study model, and 323 responses collected were deemed valid for main data analysis. Findings The results revealed that perceived enjoyment of content is a powerful antecedent of trust, attitudes and behavioral intentions. Content quality is a strong predictor of trust but has no meaningful effect on attitudes and behavioral intentions. Originality/value Theoretically, this study contributes to the research in the tourism literature on social media and cruise marketing based on integrating into the technology acceptance model, the characteristics of social media content and trust based on commitment-trust theory. This study can help cruise operators use Instagram to influence millennials and suggests significant implications based on social media interactions with millennials.