Travel for Leisure or Social Media Content?

Abstract

Change in tourist consumption behavior causing the growth trend of selfie tourism destinations has increased rapidly. This paper aims to analyze the factors influencing millennial tourists visiting selfie tourism destinations, which is still overlooked in the literature. Selfie tourism destination is an exceptional place that functions as photo spaces in indoor and outdoor rides, including natural views, hills, parks, open spaces, and modern tourist attractions, which offer unique, attractive, and instagramable landscapes. We examine six antecedents of visiting decisions, namely social media, leisure, exploration and self-discovery, prestige, destination uniqueness, and destination attractiveness, within the framework of the proposed model. The survey was conducted on millennial tourists who had visited or were currently visiting selfie tourism destinations in Indonesia. The questionnaires were distributed to 147 respondents, while data analysis used partial least square (PLS) to assess the path in the structural model. The results show that only four antecedents positively and significantly influence visiting decisions. At the same time, the other two antecedents do not have a positive and significant effect on this factor. The implication is that destination managers are expected to meet the expectations and needs of millennial tourists by providing a variety of unique and exciting tourist attractions.