The Impact of After-Travel Sharing on Social Media on Tourism Experience from the Perspective of Sharer: Analysis on Grounded Theory Based on Interview Data

Abstract

In the age of rapid development of social media, most researches focus on the tourists’ motive for sharing, content preference, and the impact of content shared on potential tourists, while few researches pay attention to the impact of tourism sharing on the sharer itself. With grounded theory, this paper analyzes the sharing preferences of tourists at different tourism experience levels and the impact of sharing on the sharer’s own tourism experience and next destination choice. The research shows the following: (1) sharing tourism experience on social media will positively regulate the sharer’s tourism experience, thus positively promoting the tourist’s satisfaction for this trip and expectation for next trip. (2) The sharing preferences and focuses of tourists at different tourism experience levels are different, which constitutes the hierarchy model of tourism sharing. (3) The destination choice preferences of tourists at all sharing levels are related to the sharing levels at which the tourists are. The paper also verifies the fact that Gaffman’s dramaturgical theory onstage and backstage are not completely independent but have significant effect on each other.