Social media and destination image: conceptualizing social media’s role in forming destination image and shaping tourists’ behavioral responses

Despite the inescapable prominence of social media in the day-to-day life of consumers, few tourism studies have integrated social media with components like destination image and tourists’ behavioural intentions to form one comprehensive framework. Thus, our paper aims to develop a holistic, conceptual framework that walks readers through the direct and indirect influence social media has over how tourists view destinations and make their travel decisions. Two key mediators, self-congruity and functional congruity, are used to connect social media and destination image with three modes of tourist behaviour: intention to visit, intention to revisit, and intention to recommend a particular destination. Grounded in Fundamental Motives Theory and Social Influence Theory, the framework is novel, bringing its diverse yet connected mechanisms under one umbrella to provide a more modern explanation of the nuances of how social media influences tourist behaviour to help destination marketers fine-tune their social media marketing campaigns.