Social media sites and nightlife tourism: an empirical study of tourist decision-making on nightlife entertainment consumption

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of tourists’ social media usage when planning trips on the probability of tourists consuming nightlife activities and their spending on nightlife consumption. Design/methodology/approach Two thousand questionnaires comprising questions about social media usage, consumption of nightlife entertainment and decisions to consume nightlife activities are distributed to international visitors at the departure hall of Phuket International Airport. A series of regressions are estimated. A Heckman two-step correction model is conducted to avoid the potential of selection bias. Findings Results show that the information available on Facebook positively links with the probability of tourists consuming nightlife activities. Furthermore, findings indicate that the usage of YouTube in tourist trip planning could statistically influence tourists to spend more on their nightlife consumption. Therefore, the results suggest that entrepreneurs could use Facebook to stimulate tourists’ nightlife consumption, while YouTube could be used to elevate tourists’ spending on nightlife consumption. The influence of these two social media sites on tourists’ decisions aids the authorities in the mitigation of the negative impacts of nightlife tourism. Originality/value Given the increasing role of social media in tourists’ consumption choices, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to quantitatively explore the relationship between tourists’ social media usage and nightlife consumption in Thailand. The revealed relationship between the use of specific social media sites (Facebook and YouTube) and tourists’ decisions to consume and the amount spent on nightlife consumption could be used by nightlife tourism entrepreneurs and destination marketers in their marketing campaigns, yielding competitive advantages. Meanwhile, related authorities and non-profit organisations could apply this study’s findings to demarket tourists’ consumption of nightlife activities in areas affected by the negative impacts of tourists’ nightlife consumption.