FACTORS INFLUENCE CHINESE TOURIST USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TOURISM-RELATED: CASE OF SINA WEIBO

Abstract

Social media plays an important role in consumer relations for the tourist industry in China. In the last decade, Chinese people have got used to visiting social media they trust before they make decisions on travelling. This trend, on the one hand, challenges traditional marketing strategies in the tourist industry; on the other hand, it also offers a great opportunity to take an insight into travellers’ behaviors affected by content from social media. So, there is a need in understanding how social media influences traveller’s behaviors. It is topical not only for people in the tourist industry in China but also in the rest of the world. In order to respond to the call stated above, this thesis examines the largest Chinese social media platform (by the number of users and monthly active users) Sina Weibo, and how its tourist content influence traveller’s behaviours. It will adopt a modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to look into the results of the  users surveyed by Sina Weibo. The results suggest that the variables such as Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Condition (FC), and Information Quality (IQ) have a positive influence on Behavioural Intention (BI), which means the above factors will influence people’s travel choices when using Sina Weibo. It also proposes recommendations based on the received results for further study and applications.