Tourism Communication Failure and Visitor Risk: A Study of Influencer-Driven Destination Choice

Abstract

Destination planning and selection has been influenced heavily by the increasing number of travel influencers and the number of social media channels they utilize to promote destinations. However, there is still limited empirical literature that addresses the relationship between the promotion of these unregulated influencer segments to tourists and their overall safety awareness, risk perception, cognitive decision-making/reasoning, on-scene challenges, quality of experience in their destination of travel, and overall post-visit attitude. This research is conducted in major tourism locations in the Tamil Nadu region of India and utilizes a quantitative methodology to obtain data from 450 tourists visiting Rameswaram, Kodaikanal, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Sivaganga and Tirunelveli, which included both domestic and international visitors within the designated for this geographic area. Hypotheses were examined utilising the correlation analysis, independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and multiple regression methods. Significant evidence of influencer dependence negatively correlating with safety checking behaviour among travellers is provided in our conclusion. Influencer reliant travellers were significantly more likely to experience safety, legality and environmental difficulties than travellers who used government approved resources such as tourism boards or government agencies. Experience dissatisfaction can be explained by travel challenges and psychological vulnerability accounting for 58.1% of variance. Post visit, travellers had lower levels of trust in influencers and greater support for regulations; however, there was a difference between international and domestic travellers, as international travel had a higher level of exposed vulnerability and travel challenge than domestic travel.