Adapting to social media: the influence of online reviews on tourist behaviour at a world heritage site in China

ABSTRACT

Extending narrative transportation theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of online reviews on destination choice and purchasing behaviour at a destination and to clarify the role of prior destination knowledge and perceived usefulness of online reviews. Data were collected from 432 tourists in Gulangyu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in China. The results of structural equation modelling analysis validate the positive effect of online reviews on tourists’ destination choice and purchasing behaviour. This study offers both theoretical and policy implications to understand how tourists reference online reviews to make travel-related decisions.

KEYWORDS:

• Destination choice
• decision making
• narrative transportation
• online reviews
• tourist behaviour

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the student research assistants of the Xiamen University for helping in questionnaire surveys and the funding support from the Departmental Special Research Project provided by the Department of Social Sciences of the Education University of Hong Kong.

Disclosure statement

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

Author Agreement: All the authors of this paper have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript being submitted.

Permission Note: All materials in this manuscript are original content.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Education University of Hong Kong under Departmental Special Research Grant 04213.