Influence of social media on tourists’ destination choice: Is trust of information source a game changer?

This study investigates the role of trust in social media sources to shape tourists’ perceptions of destination trust and behavioral intention, with application to Shandong Province, China. Drawing on Trust Transfer Theory, this research examines how trust in five types of social media sources—family or friends, famous influencers, popular platforms, government tourism organizations, and tourism businesses—affects tourists' destination trust and intention to visit or recommend the location. Two different surveys were employed; the first was questionnaire developed for a limited sample of tourism professionals (n=12) to gain a general sense of the impact of social media on tourism marketing in Shandong, and the second was a questionnaire developed for Chinese tourists to Shandong to understand the influence of trust in social media sources and destination decision-making (n = 418). Quantitative analysis confirmed strong internal consistency across constructs (Destination Trust α = 0.87; Behavioral Intention α = 0.85). Pearson correlation results revealed significant positive relationships between all five social media sources and destination trust (all r > 0.83, p < 0.001). A one-way ANOVA indicated significant differences in destination trust across primary social media sources, with Duncan’s post hoc tests identifying famous influencer content as statistically more impactful than institutional sources, such as the government tourism organizations or tourism businesses. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) results showed that trust with famous influencers (β = 0.329) and family and friends (β = 0.274) exerted the strongest influence on destination trust, which in turn strongly predicted behavioral intention (β = 0.966, R² = 0.933). Findings indicate that each social media source influenced decision-making. Together, these sources form a synergistic ecosystem that supports destination marketing. This research extends Trust Transfer Theory into a tourism context and offers insights for digital marketing strategies that leverage the complementary power of diverse social media content.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Zeyu

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stewart, William
• Endres, Renata
• Stodolska, Monika

• Tourism
• Social Media
• Trust
• Marketing

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Zeyu Wu

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129302

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129302