Sharing memorable tourism experiences on mobile social media and how it influences further travel decisions

ABSTRACT

Tourists like to share their memorable experiences on mobile social media. This sharing behaviour may stimulate tourists’ future holiday intentions. Within an ethnic minority tourism setting in Guangxi Zhuang, this study examines the relationship between sharing memorable ethnic minority tourism experiences (MEMTEs) on mobile social media and intentions to visit other ethnic destinations. Partial least squares structural equation modelling and Sobel tests were performed to analyse survey data from 279 tourists. The results indicate that three dimensions of MEMTEs (scenery, entertainment, and interaction) affect tourists’ sharing behaviour and that sharing behaviour during trips mediates the effects of during-trip experiences (scenery and interaction) on tourists’ post-trip intentions to visit other destinations. This study explores MEMTE as the source of during- and post-trip behaviours, explains the role of sharing experiences, contributes a scale for measuring sharing behaviour, and makes recommendations for developing ethnic minority tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic minority tourism experience
• mobile social media
• sharing behaviour
• intention to visit other destinations
• ethnic tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The National Social Science Fund of China: [Grant Number 14BMZ077].