Electronic word-of-mouth on social networking sites: What inspires travelers to engage in opinion seeking, opinion passing, and opinion giving?

ABSTRACT

The rise of social media in the digital era has revolutionized the travel and tourism industry. Some people post their feedback about the places they visit on the internet, while others seek such information on the internet. This has heightened the interest in and value of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) manyfold. This research seeks to examine the factors that may influence travel-related eWOM behavior through social networking sites (SNSs). Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied on data collected from 416 travelers who are users of SNSs. The results indicate that information quality and quantity are the two most significant factors that influence travel-related eWOM behavior. Additionally, the intention to use SNSs when making travel-related decisions in the future is the most prominent factor among all. The paper concludes with pragmatic suggestions for travel and tourism businesses to optimally utilize travel-related eWOM for improving their business and earning a competitive edge.

KEYWORDS:

• Elaboration likelihood model
• electronic word of mouth (eWOM)
• social networking sites (SNSs)
• social media
• travel
• tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ishani Patharia Chopra

Ishani Patharia Chopra is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Commerce at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Haryana, India. Her academic specialization areas are marketing, quantitative techniques, and financial management. Her research interests include sustainability issues and consumer behavior. She has published many papers in journals of national and international repute with high impact factor. She has completed a major research project awarded by the Indian Council for Social Science Research on corporate social performance. She has also been awarded the Professor Mannubhai M. Shah Memorial Research Gold Medal for Best Research Paper for Empirical Researches in the area of Marketing by the Indian Commerce Association.

Weng Marc Lim

Weng Marc Lim is an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology Australia and a Full Professor and the Dean of the Faculty of Business, Design and Arts at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak. His research interests include hospitality and tourism marketing. He holds a doctorate in business and economics from Monash University and certificates in leadership and pedagogy from Cornell University and Harvard University. He has published in numerous A*/A-ranked journals.

Tanu Jain

Tanu Jain is a Research Scholar in the Department of Commerce at Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Khanpur Kalan, Sonipat, India. Her research area is marketing. Her research interests include e-commerce and consumer behavior. She has won best paper presentation awards at national and international conferences.