Live-Streaming Tourism: Model Development and Validations

Abstract

Based on affordance theory, this study proposes the attributes of live streaming tourism (enjoyment, escapism, social presence, synchronism, self-presentation, social interaction, and utility) and examines their impacts on consumers’ attitudes and behavioral intentions concerning tourism destinations. In this study, data were collected from 985 respondents to cross-validate the proposed theoretical model using three distinct approaches: an experimental design, a cross-sectional survey on memory recall experiences, and cross-cultural (US vs. Chinese) sample comparisons. Multi-group PLS-SEM results indicated that Chinese tourists emphasized social presence in live streaming tourism, whereas US tourists ascribed more value to synchronism in live streaming tourism than their Chinese counterparts. Self-presentation and utility were two robust factors in live streaming tourism that influenced tourists’ visiting intentions. In the recollection of live streaming tourism experiences, self-presentation, synchronicity, and utility were critical factors that led to positive outcomes for tourism destinations. However, in the study’s experiments, escape, self-presentation, and social plkkresence were the most important factors that affected tourists’ behaviors.