Social media experience, attitude and behavioral intention towards umrah package among generation X and Y

Abstract

The development of Islamic tourism such as Umrah does not get much attention in the literature though there are 6 million people all around the world performing Umrah every year. Nowadays, social media has been recognized as an important tool in building and maintaining the image of tourist destination especially in the Umrah context. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of social media experiences (interactions and sharing of contents) on attitudes and behavioral intentions towards Umrah package (booking decisions and electronic Word of Mouth) among generation X and Y. Sums of three hundred eighty-four respondents were engaged as the respondents. The population of this study was among Malaysian Muslim citizens who had social media experiences in seeking online information and knowledge about Umrah and already performed Umrah. The data then was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) software. The findings of this study confirmed that sharing of contents of social media experiences has significant and positive relationship on behavioral intentions (booking decisions and electronic Word of Mouth).