Online Official Destination Promo Videos’ Informativeness and Comments’ Valence’s Effect on Visiting Intention to Risky Destinations

Abstract

Social media is becoming a growing research topic nowadays, especially in destination promotion, information search and prospective tourists‘ decision-making behaviours. Destination promo videos (DPVs), especially the online ones, are among the most important information sources of travel decision-making for their interactive and sharing features. This study examined the influence of the perceived informativeness of social media official DPVs (ODPVs), and their comments‘ positivity, on perceived destination risk and visiting intentions to risky destinations. The results showed that the of comments‘ positivity reduces perceived destination risks, and the respondents trust the online ODPV‘s perceived informativeness. Their trust made the perceived destination risks to be less. Lesser perceived destination risks improve behavioural intention in visiting there. This study results would be beneficial for those who are focusing their research on social media DPVs and their informativeness as part of their destination-promotion strategy, especially risky destinations.