The Implicit and Explicit Motivations of Tourist Behaviour in Sharing Travel Photographs on Instagram: A Path and Cluster Analysis

Abstract

Instagram has been an emerging platform for tourists to share their experiences and connect with other users in the multiphasic travel stages. Despite the huge number of photographs shared on Instagram on a daily basis, it remains ambiguous regarding the underlying motives of tourists’ posting behaviour. Thus, this study aims to conceptualise a framework based on the internal and external triggers of sharing travel photographs through a mix methods design involving diary studies and questionnaires. By conducting a path analysis, this study presents and validates a theoretical model including various motivational factors; namely enjoyment, self-esteem, recognition, interests, social norms, goals, social ties, social status and prestige, self-efficiency, outcome expectations and memorabilia. Meanwhile, this research clusters young techsavvy tourists into four distinct segments based on their behaviour of using Instagram while traveling. By bridging motivational theories, social psychology, and social media in the context of tourism, this research extends literature related to user-generated content and Instagram. Practically, this research allows marketers to optimise the effectiveness of marketing strategies based on the characteristics of tourists and their behaviour on social media platforms.

Destination Image of DMO and UGC on Instagram: A Machine-Learning Approach

“…Amongst the various available channels, Instagram has not only been embraced by tourists as a trendy platform [4] but is also well-liked by marketers to create compelling marketing strategies [11,21]. Characterised as a highly visual platform, approximately 1 billion monthly active users and 95 million photos shared per day on Instagram were recorded, as of 2020 [22].…”

Characterizing traveling Instagrammers: an exploration of socio-psychological concepts, travel typologies and posting motives

“…The reliability test for the posting motives scale (Daxböck et al , 2021) resulted in item reliability between 0.695 (interests) and 0.844 (recognition). Only self-efficacy reached a borderline Cronbach’s alpha of 0.567 but was still taken into account to consider all the suggested posting motives.…”

“…Photo sharing enables people to express themselves and plays a vital role in identity and impression management, thus influencing self-presentation and self-promotion strategies (Lo and McKercher, 2015), especially as pictures are more conspicuous than text (Hu et al , 2022). While several studies have focused on tourists’ motivational factors in knowledge or experience sharing (Zhang et al , 2022) on social media platforms (Lee and Hyun, 2018; Munar and Jacobsen, 2014; Bilgihan et al , 2016), Li (2020) and Daxböck et al (2021) have stressed that photo sharing has become an essential component of tourist behavior. The latter, however, has yet to gain sufficient attention in the context of tourism.…”

“…Contrarily, Li (2020) investigated Chinese tourists’ motivation to share travel photos on WeChat and found recognition and status, tourism information, enjoyment and disclosure to be four motivational factors. In another study, Daxböck et al (2021) conceptualized a framework based on internal and external triggers of sharing travel photographs, which they then empirically validated. They were able to identify 11 motivational factors: enjoyment, self-esteem, recognition, interests, social norms, goals, social ties, social status and prestige, self-efficacy, outcome expectations and memorabilia.…”

The Usage of Emoji in Tourism-Related Instagram Posts: Suggestions from a Marketing Perspective

“…Instagram has become a popular platform that triggers creativeness and self-promotion of tourism destinations [12,22]. When applied strategically, user-generated content (UGC) can be highly beneficial for tourism organisations [24] because it enhances the destination image [12,24].…”