Travel influencers and their social identity: a phenomenological approach

Abstract

The role of travel influencers has become increasingly popular, having a significant impact on tourists and tourism businesses. Influencers negotiate and navigate challenges such as content quality and authenticity while fostering a sense of community and influencing industry standards. Little is known, however, about how travel influencers construct their social identities. Based on social identity theory, and by interviewing 19 Chinese travel influencers, this study developed the following three-stage representation of travel influencer social identity construction: ‘transformation’, ‘maintenance’, and ‘identity value presentation’. It makes significant contributions to extant tourism literature by providing unique insights into the construction process associated with the identities of travel influencers.