Exploring the influence of electronic word-of-mouth on tourists’ visit intention: A dual process approach

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on outbound tourists’ intention to visit a destination through a dual-process perspective – the central route of argument quality (AQ) and the peripheral route of source credibility (SC). With the pervasion of Web 2.0 and information and communication technology, user-generated content (UGC) has become popular in the online environment, and it affects consumers’ decisions greatly.

A structural model based on Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) is proposed in this study to explore the influence of eWOM on outbound tourists’ intention to visit a destination. Empirical data were collected among Chinese outbound tourists via an online survey. The data were analyzed using structural equation model with SPSS Amos 22.0.

The research results indicate that tourist’s attitude toward a destination was positively influenced by AQ of eWOM, and intention to recommend the destination before travel was positively influenced by attitude toward destination and SC of destination-related eWOM. Outbound tourists’ intention to visit a destination was positively determined by AQ, attitude toward destination and WOM intention. Several practical and theoretical implications are also discussed in the study.

This study contributed to the understanding of individual’s decision-making through a dual-process perspective. Findings indicate that the dual influence process delineated in theory of ELM is also applicable to explain individual’s decision in complicated information source.