Decoding Destination Desires: The Influence of Social Media on Young Travelers' Choices Through Parasocial Interaction

Abstract

This study aims to explore the influence of source credibility (attractiveness, expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity) and fairness (distributive information, procedural, and interpersonal) on developing parasocial relationships between SMIs and their followers, and how these relationships lead to the marketing outcome of destination visit intentions between generation Y and Z. This study utilized a quantitative research method, specifically the self-administered questionnaire technique. The collected data was analysed using Smart PLS. The findings indicate that attractiveness (a sub-dimension of source credibility), distributive fairness, procedural fairness, and informational fairness have a significant influence on developing parasocial relationships between SMIs and generation Y and Z. Additionally, these parasocial relationships mediate the relationship between these factors and destination visit intentions. Furthermore, expertise, trustworthiness, similarity, and informational fairness do not influence parasocial relationships and intentions, which is not in line with previous literature. This research makes significant theoretical and practical contributions to the tourism marketing literature by providing evidence in regard to understanding destination visit intentions in the context of destination marketing.