Impacts of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) from social networks sites (SNS) on the intention to purchase tourism accommodation of Gen Z in Vietnam

Abstract

4Social networking sites (SNSs) have been playing a significant role in spreading electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) amongst gen Z tourists in Vietnam recently. However, the underlying process by which customer-to-customer (C2C) eWOM from SNSs affects tourism consumers has not been fully studied. The author of this paper introduces a comprehensive research model that concentrates on the impacts of C2C eWOM using the information/ persuasion relationship as regards to the intention to make purchases. This research gathered data from 382 Vietnamese participants through traditional paper questionnaires. The collected quantitative data was processed through SPSS. The statistical results suggest that perceived persuasiveness, perceived expertise, and perceived trustworthiness are a positive relationship with eWOM usefulness from SNSs. Also, eWOM usefulness was confirmed to increase the probability of eWOM adoption, which, in turn, can boost the purchase intention toward the tourism accommodations proposed in the eWOM. This empirical study can enable marketers to gain an in-depth understanding of the impacts of eWOM from SNSs, especially from key opinion leaders (KOLs), on consumer purchase behaviour of tourism products. Accordingly, our findings can inspire marketers to plan and execute effective SNSs marketing campaigns to generate trustworthy and useful C2C eWOM, thus, increasing the intention to purchase tourism accommodations.