A Study on the Tourism-Related Information Consumption Process of Tourists on Social Networking Sites

Soyoung An, Weolho Kim, Bongkoo Lee and Jungho Suh
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Soyoung An: Department of Sport Industry Studies, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03722, Korea
Weolho Kim: Department of Tourism Management, Gangneung-Wonju National University, 7 Jukheon-gil, Gangneung-si 26403, Korea
Bongkoo Lee: Department of International Tourism Management, DongEui University, Jin-Gu, Busan 47340, Korea
Jungho Suh: Department of Management, School of Business, The George Washington University, Funger Hall, 2201 G Street NW, Suite 3015, Washington, DC 20052, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: The current study was conducted to examine the consumption process of tourists through the SIPS model as they experienced tourism-related information and products on social networking sites. Data was collected online from Koreans who have experience in using social networking sites, and a total of 479 responses were used for the data analysis. The statistical package for social sciences 23 and analysis of moment structures 23 were used to evaluate stability, consistency for the measurement items, and to perform structural equation modeling to test hypotheses. There were three main results that emerged from the study. First, three dimensions of sympathy (emotional sympathy, content sympathy, and sympathy for situations and publishers) were extracted. Second, among the dimensions of sympathy, only “content sympathy” showed a significant impact on identification while all dimensions of sympathy significantly affected tourism participation intention. It indicated that tourists are willing to participate in tourism activities immediately if they sympathize with the information obtained from social media without going through the identification process, which is the opposite result of what the SIPS model argued. Lastly, travel content production experience has been shown to have a moderating effect in the relationship between identification and tourism participation intention. The current study will contribute to understanding tourists’ consumption process of tourism-related information on social networking sites and to establish efficient marketing strategies.

Keywords: social networking services; tourism-related information; tourism contents; sympathy; identification; tourism participation intention; SIPS model; structural equation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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