Leisure time posts on WhatsApp status drive travel and tourism consumption

Abstract

Purpose

The present study aims to examine whether leisure time posts shared on WhatsApp status drive to travel and tourism consumption among users.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, discriminant analysis was employed to test hypotheses and identify essential factors.

Findings

The study indicated that the eight most contributing factors are expressing happiness, planning leisure time, views and comments, attractiveness, inquiring about places, preferring to post, nice way of expression and relax. These factors came from the latent variables of attitude, motivation and self-expression. Overall, the main influencing factors are internal (attitude and motivation), followed by an external factor i.e. self-expression. Additionally, the findings indicated that these significantly and positively impact travel and tourism consumption.

Practical implications

The discriminators identified in the study would guide tour and travel agencies and the agencies' managers on how best to adopt WhatsApp and WhatsApp's status application to influence aspiring travelers.

Originality/value

This study enlarges the existing literature by integrating three factors, attitude, motivation and self-expression, into a model to influence the behavioral outcomes of aspirational travelers using WhatsApp status.

Citation

Agrawal, S.R. and Mittal, D. (2024), "Leisure time posts on WhatsApp status drive travel and tourism consumption", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 458-478. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-12-2022-0587