Potential Factors of Consumers' Travel Intention on Sharing Platforms in the Context of Sharing Economy

Abstract

Holiday travel has always been a wonderful thing for people to relax and enjoy their lives. The popularity of the Internet and the emergence of social media platforms have changed the way consumers obtain travel information and stimulated their willingness to travel. However, with the emergence of a large number of social media platforms, problems such as complex page design of some software, difficulty in searching for crucial information, the different influence of sharers, and perceived value of shared content have gradually appeared, and these problems affect consumer' using feeling as well as their travel intention. In this paper, in order to study the influencing factors of consumers' travel intention, a structural model was constructed using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in three dimensions: social media sharing platform, sharer's sharing content and sharer's influence. The study confirms that social media sharing platforms positively influence consumers' perceived ease of use and significantly affect consumers' willingness of travelling. The results further reveal the influence of the sharers themselves and their sharing of visual information such as images positively influencing consumers' perceived usefulness. A series of recommendations are helpful for future research on consumers' willingness to travel and the development and construction of social media platforms.