Title: The role of social networks for decision-making about tourism destinations

Authors: Bruno Miguel Vieira; Ana Pinto Borges; Elvira Pacheco Vieira

Addresses: ISAG – European Business School and Research Centre in Business Sciences and Tourism (CICET – FCVC), Portugal; Centro Algoritmi – University of Minho, Campus de Salazares/Ramalde, Rua dos Salazares 842, 4100-442 Porto, Portugal ' ISAG – European Business School and Research Centre in Business Sciences and Tourism (CICET – FCVC), Portugal; Research Centre in Organisations, Markets and Industrial Management (COMEGI), Campus de Salazares/Ramalde, Rua dos Salazares 842, 4100-442 Porto, Portugal ' ISAG – European Business School and Research Centre in Business Sciences and Tourism (CICET – FCVC), Portugal; IPVC – Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo and UNIAG – Applied Management Research Unit, Campus de Salazares/Ramalde, Rua dos Salazares 842, 4100-442 Porto, Portugal

Abstract: The influence of social networks (SN) on destination selection was studied as part of tourism management/marketing strategy. It also presented the new extension of technology acceptance model (TAM), considering the constructs of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) attitude towards the use (ATU), perceived enjoyment (PE), e-word-of-mouth (eWOM) and previous influence factors (PIF) to assess tourists' behavioural intention (BI) towards the use of SN for choosing the tourism destination. For such, we performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling (SEM). Logistic regression was conducted to explain the influence of SN on choosing and finding destination information. Of all the respondents, 66.5% had used SN to get information or decide on their tourist destination. Facebook and Instagram exhibited greater impact on tourist destination selection than LinkedIn. The results provided insights for marketers, governments and tourism related organisations.

Keywords: social networks; tourism destination; influence; tourist behaviour; analysed theories; constructs; technology acceptance model; TAM; perceived ease of use; PEOU; attitude towards the use; ATU; previous influence factors; PIF.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2023.128148

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2023 Vol.18 No.1, pp.1 - 27

Received: 20 Aug 2020
Accepted: 05 Aug 2021
Published online: 09 Jan 2023 *

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