Why do Chinese tourists post selfie and who are they? An exploratory study

Abstract

Selfie is a new form of touristic gazing. It is imperative for destination marketers to understand the factors that motivate tourists to post selfies and the kind of individuals who are willing to do so. However, implications from the literature are insufficient. Using mixed-method approach, this study uncovered five travel selfie-posting motivations including archiving, positive emotion, recognition, socialization, and self-presentation. These motivations were further analyzed using Latent Profile Analysis, which generates three groups of tourists who vary in their level of motivations: highly-motivated, moderately-motivated, and amotivated groups. Individuals belonging to different groups vary in whether they do a thorough job, tend to be lazy, generally trust others, and are relaxed. They also differ in demographic characteristic in terms of income. The findings contribute to the literature by uncovering additional selfie-posting motivation so that its measure is more comprehensive, and by showing the salience of intrinsic motivations.