What does personality tell us about travellers’ social media use, social return, and travel intentions

Bibliographic Data

ID21698342
AuthorsSabrina Rahman (0000-0002-4057-3116, University of Georgia, corresponding author), B Bynum Boley (0000-0002-4989-3773, University of Georgia)
Year2025
Volume28
Issue13
Pages2063-2069
Publication date2025-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Issues in Tourism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-3500 • E-ISSN: 1747-7603
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13683500.2024.2364771
OpenAlexW4399464011
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

While much has been written on the influence personality has over travel behaviour, few have researched the relationship between personality, social media usage, and intent to travel. This research note is one of the first to bring social media into the discussion to see how one’s personality influences their utilitarian and socially symbolic uses of social media, social return, and, ultimately, their intentions to travel. Data from 1,653 international tourists from the United States of America’s top 5 travel markets revealed the Big 5 Personalities had significant but divergent relationships on utilitarian and symbolic motivations for using social media suggesting marketers should use personality profiles in their social media marketing campaigns. ‘Social Return’ was also found to be a crucial element in the proposed framework, reinforcing the proposition that DMOs and other tourism industry practitioners should use social media as a contemporary tool to boost travel to their destinations

Advertising · Business · Destinations · Geography · Personality · Political science · Social media · Tourism · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Psychology · Social Psychology · Marketing

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