Role of emotional response in the relationship between social media video content and purchase intention on tourism product

Marketing strategy has changed with the reform and development of social media and information technology. This advancement has given rise to the emergence of social media influencers (SMIs) as micro-celebrities who can significantly impact public opinion. With thousands of followers or even millions of fans, they hold great sway over audiences who actively engage with influencer-created content and are socially influenced to follow their advice. Consequently, marketers in all sectors, including tourism, are increasingly collaborating with SMIs to leverage the latter’s capacity to reach a large target market and influence consumers’ purchase decisions. Despite the evident significance of influencer marketing in the tourism industry, there exists a noteworthy research gap. Comprehensive investigations exploring how SMI endorsements precisely influence consumer decision-making processes and what specific factors contribute to the efficacy of these endorsements in tourism marketing activities remain conspicuously scarce. Destination influencer marketing also faces practical challenges and future uncertainties. This research aimed to address these critical gaps by examining the nuanced dynamics of SMIs’ impact on purchase intention within the tourism sector, shedding light on this burgeoning field and providing valuable insights for both academicians and industry practitioners. In this investigation, Social Presence Theory and Social Comparison Theory were adopted as the theoretical bases to explain the factors underlying SMI marketing, whereas the Stimulus-Organism-Response model was employed to understand the relationship between SMIs’ travel posts and audiences’ purchase intentions towards tourism products. The target population of this study comprised Weibo users, a vast community totaling around 511 million people. The sampling frame was limited to a specific subset of Weibo users who follow SMIs known for endorsing tourism products. Employing a quantitative approach, data was collected from eligible respondents using survey questionnaires. After stringent screening, 405 valid responses constituted the final sample. SPSS software was employed to assess the survey data, revealing that the SMI factors leading to audience purchase intention are parasocial relationships with the audience, physical attractiveness, and similarity with the audience. The conspicuousness of tourism products, characterized by interpersonal mediation, status demonstration, materialistic hedonism, and communication of belonging, was also found to affect audiences’ purchase intentions towards these products. The results further demonstrated that audiences’ emotional responses (pleasure, arousal and benign envy) mediate the effects of the SMI factors and conspicuousness factors on consumers’ purchase intention towards tourism products. This study illuminates the effectiveness of SMIs in influencing tourism-related purchase intentions, taking into account relevant variables such as parasocial relationships and social comparison. By examining the impact of influencer marketing on consumer decision-making, the findings address the gap in the current understanding of how destination marketing organizations select influencers and offer a practical direction for influencers looking to collaborate with these organizations. The study’s valuable insights into influencer marketing dynamics also serve as guidance to destination marketers in optimizing their strategies and achieving better outcomes. Finally, by contributing to the evolving field of influencer marketing, this study paves the way for future research into the factors that shape tourists’ purchasing decisions.

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