Understanding followers’ processing and perceptions of social media influencer destination marketing: Differences between #Millennials and #GenZs

Social media influencer (SMI) marketing implemented by tourism and destination managers has attracted widespread academic attention in recent years. Efforts have been made to evaluate the effectiveness of SMI in destination marketing using source credibility, informativeness, and SMIs’ relationship with their followers. However, extant literature has paid limited attention to capturing and understanding the various mechanisms of persuasion of how SMI destination marketing audiences process relevant SMI information and how their processing of the information would influence their travel decision-making. This study bridges these research gaps with a proposed research framework by integrating the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) with theories of self-congruity, parasocial interaction, and persuasion knowledge activated by advertisement disclosure. Subsequently, the study executed an audience segmentation of the SMI destination marketing between the Millennials and Generation Z. Adopting a quantitative approach (N = 501), results showed that Millennials and Generation Z audiences have distinct information processing preferences and attitudes toward advertisement disclosure of SMIs. Key implications for theory and practice were also discussed.