Does Social Media Make Tourists More like Special Forces? The Impact of Supportive Communication on Generation Z’s Intention to Engage in Special Forces-Style Tourism

Jianzhen Zhao, Yiyan Wang, Shuaifang Liu, Jun (Justin) Li and Qinglin Wang ()
Additional contact information
Jianzhen Zhao: College of Business Administration, Guangdong Baiyun University, Guangzhou 510450, China
Yiyan Wang: School of Tourism Management, Higher Education Mega Center, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Shuaifang Liu: School of Tourism Management, Higher Education Mega Center, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Jun (Justin) Li: School of Tourism Management, Higher Education Mega Center, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Qinglin Wang: Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-16

Abstract: In the post-COVID-19 era, tourism and cultural industries have begun to bounce back, and their “revenge tourism” desire has forced “Special Forces-style tourism”, which was popularized throughout Chinese social media in 2023. This study explores a current knowledge gap in understanding how social media inspires Generation Z’s engagement in Special Forces tourism and implications for practical sustainable tourism. By leaning on the SOR model, Social Identity Theory, and Social Learning Theory, this study investigates how supportive and interactive social media environments shape the sustainable engagement intentions of Generation Z. We experimentally find that perceived supportive communication about sustainability issues significantly inflates sustainable engagement intentions in high-interactivity settings, by encouraging flow experiences and vicarious reinforcement that facilitate socially responsible travel decisions. Key findings include identification of supportive online interactions that can facilitate sustainable tourism among born-digital travelers, who enable informed, socially and environmentally responsible tourism behaviors.

Keywords: social media; Special Forces-style tourism; perceived supportive communication; flow experience; vicarious reinforcement; sustainable tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10033/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10033/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:22:p:10033-:d:1523098

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().