What Motivates Tourists to Get Involved in Cyberspace? A Comparative Look at Two Countries

This paper aimed to test the influences of perceived usefulness on travelers’ willingness to create user-generated content (UGC) through attitudes toward social media, travel planning attitude, and electronic word of mouth, as mediating variables, and compare the proposed model results between two culturally and geographically distinct nations. The research model and the interactions among the constructs were tested and validated through structural equation modeling. Randomly selected qualified responses from Mexican (N=۱۹۲) and Taiwanese (N=۲۰۰) participants were analyzed. The comparative analysis of statistical results showed that in Mexico, travel planning attitude does not directly influence travelers’ involvement in UGC. Instead, choosing a travel destination is the reason why Mexicans would generate content. However, in Taiwan the non-significant direct relationship is between electronic word of mouth and user-generated content. Despite the massive social media affect in Taiwan, reading and collecting information online is not the reason for Taiwanese to get involved in providing online content. Research findings assist the destination marketers and tourism stakeholders to identify essential elements that positively motivate and inspire travelers’ intention to share opinions through social media in order to promote or adjust plans and adopt compatible strategies to successfully form and influence travelers’ decision-making behavior.

Keywords:

perceived usefulness , Attitude toward Social Media , Travel Planning Attitude , Electronic word of mouth , User-Generated Content