Chinese tourists' barriers to sharing travel photos in WeChat

Abstract

Given the widespread availability of mobile internet and smart phones, photo-sharing on social networking services (SNS) has attracted a great deal of academic attention. Even though the number of photos shared on SNS is still increasing due to the increasing number of SNS users, some existing SNS users have now stopped sharing their travel photos on SNS. To fill the research gap, this paper explores Chinese tourists' barriers to sharing travel photos in WeChat. Based on 20 semi-structured interviews, this study identifies four barriers, including perceived risk, guanxi maintenance, personality, and disclosure. Given the importance of harmony in Chinese culture, this study also highlights the strong link between guanxi maintenance and Chinese visitors' willingness to share travel photos in WeChat. This paper discusses both the theoretical contribution and the practical implications of this study in the conclusion section.