The Effects of a Politician’s Social Media Communication and the Trip’s Purpose on Global Travel

ABSTRACT

Although many political leaders communicate with foreign leaders and publics through social media, limited knowledge exists concerning its impact on global travel. However, signaling theory suggests that a political leader’s social media communication signals their honest feelings regarding a country. In response, that country’s residents counter signal via travel behaviors toward the country whose leader made the remarks. When a political leader’s communication is positive toward a country, it is called social media diplomacy (SMD). Comparatively, negative communication is called damaging political rhetoric (ANTI-SMD). Furthermore, this study examined whether a trip’s purpose moderates SMD and ANTI-SMD effects on global travel. Resultantly, SARIMAX time-series modeling found SMD had positive effects on pleasure travel flow and no impact on business or student travelers, while ANTI-SMD caused pleasure travelers to avoid a destination.

政治家在社交媒体上的言论和旅行目的对全球旅游所产生的影响 摘要

尽管许多政治领导人通过社交媒体与外国领导人和公众沟通，但人们对社交媒体对全球旅行的影响知之甚少。然而，信号理论认为，政治领导人在社交媒体上的交流表明了他们对一个国家的真实感受。作为回应，该国居民通过旅行行为向发表上述言论的国家发出反信号。当一个政治领导人的沟通对一个国家是积极的，这被称为社会媒体外交(SMD)。相反，消极沟通被称为破坏性政治修辞(ANTI-SMD)。此外，本研究还考察了旅行目的是否会减 缓全球旅行中的SMD和ANTI-SMD效应。结果表明，SARIMAX时间序列模型发现SMD对休 闲旅游流有正向影响，对商务旅行者和学生旅行者没有影响，而ANTI-SMD会导致休闲旅 行者避开目的地。

KEYWORDS:

• China
• global tourism
• negative rhetoric
• social media diplomacy
• Trump

关键词:

• 中国，全球旅游，负面言论，社交媒体外交，特朗普

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carl A. Boger

Carl A. Boger Jr. is a Professor and the Clinton L. Rappole Distinguished Chair with research interests in diversity, equity, and inclusion and luxury marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).

Agnes L. DeFranco

Agnes DeFranco is a Professor and the Conrad N. Hilton Distinguished Chair with research interests in accounting, finance, and cost control, especially how they are affected by tourism and hospitality decisions (E-mail: [email protected]).

JeAnna L. Abbott

JeAnna L. Abbot is a Professor and Spec’s Charitable Foundation Professor in Social Responsibility. Her research interests include law and ethics, conflict management, negotiations, human resources, social responsibility, and data analytics (E-mail: [email protected]).

Mahsa Bitaab

Mahsa Bitaab is a graduate alumnus from the Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston (E-mail: [email protected]).