Are travellers' destination visit intentions influenced by social media? An information adoption theory perspective

The current study examines how users adopt information through social media and how social media influences their intentions to visit a destination. A theoretical framework was proposed, and a model was tested using a sample of 220 respondents who used social media information before visiting a destination. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to analyse the data by performing partial least squares (PLS). The respondents of this study were from two destinations in Madhya Pradesh, i.e., Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and the Buddhist Monument of Sanchi. The paper found argument quality, attitude, and tie strength to be significant predictors of travellers' information usefulness in visiting a destination by adopting social media platforms. Further, source credibility was not found significant. Lastly, the information's usefulness was positively significant for destination visit intentions. This study is innovative to analyse the adoption of social media as a tool for gathering information prior to visiting specific destinations, utilising the Information Adoption Model while incorporating additional constructs.