Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- RQ1. Do Instagram travel influencers shape users’ decisions on choosing sustainable destinations?
- RQ2. Do geo-location data on Instagram travel influencers’ posts prompt users’ selections regarding sustainable tourism destinations?
2. Literature Review
2.1. Internationalization of Destinations and Inbound Tourism
2.2. Sustainability and Tourism Destinations
2.3. Social Media, Parasocial Interaction, and Influence
2.4. Instagram and Influencers
2.5. Instagram Travel Influencers and Location-Based Social Media Data
3. Research Methodology
3.1. Hypotheses Formation
3.2. Methodology
4. Results
5. Discussion and Implications
5.1. Theoretical Implications
5.2. Practical Implications
6. Conclusions, Limitations, and Directions for Future Research
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Variable | Description | Data Source |
---|---|---|
Users’ selection of sustainable tourism destinations | Counted by total number of inbound tourists (international arrivals) per country | OECD Stat, 2021 |
Instagram travel influencers | Active travel influencers with high parasocial relationship levels counted by number of total followers and number of total reactions to posts on Instagram | Influencer Marketing Hub, 2021 |
Country’s geo–location data | Number of geo-tags and geo-hashtags used on Instagram influencers’ posts | Statista, 2021; Keyhole and Tagfinder, 2021 |
Individuals’ average level of spending per visit | The value of spending of individuals while on visits outside their country of residence. This indicator is measured in US dollars. Selected here for USD >1000 per visit. | OECD Stat, 2021 |
Daily active Instagram users | Users that are operating on Instagram on a daily basis. Selected here for >500,000 per country. | Statista, 2021 |
N Statistic | Mean | STD | Statistic Skewness | Statistic Kurtosis | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instagram travel influencers | 110 | 10.20 | 12.74768 | 2.653 | 7.325 |
Users’ selection of sustainable tourism destinations | 120 | 2702.5500 | 11,275.302 | 7.053 | 54.06 |
Country’s geo-location data | 120 | 3.69 | 3.77 | 1.854 | 4.092 |
Individuals’ average level of spending per visit | 120 | 4.62 | 4.28825 | 2.866 | 12.29 |
Daily active Instagram users | 120 | 9.11 | 5.65479 | 1.031 | 1.524 |
Valid N (Listwise) | 120 |
N Statistic | Mean | STD | Statistic Skewness | Statistic Kurtosis | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instagram travel influencers | 100 | 0.75 | 0.50653 | −0.513 | 0.878 |
Users’ selection of sustainable tourism destinations | 115 | 2.4899 | 0.93746 | 0.25 | 0.382 |
Country’s geo-location data | 95 | 0.50 | 0.34887 | 0.1 | −0.804 |
Individuals’ average level of spending per visit | 105 | 8.90 | 1.23071 | −0.157 | −0.431 |
Daily active Instagram users | 115 | 9.11 | 5.65479 | 1.031 | 1.524 |
Valid N (Listwise) | 90 |
Variables | MD | SD | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Instagram travel influencers | 0.7012 | 0.5124 | 1 | ||||
Users’ selection of sustainable tourism destinations | 2.4845 | 0.9765 | 0.498 ** | 1 | |||
Country’s geo-location data | 0.4998 | 0.3760 | −0.131 * | 0.004 | 1 | ||
Individuals’ average level of spending per visit | 115.3654 | 33.5786 | 0.187 ** | 0.435 ** | 0.059 | 1 | |
Daily active Instagram users | 8.9414 | 1.22145 | 0.825 ** | 0.827 ** | −0.099 | 0.296 * | 1 |
Variables | Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | Model 4 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Daily active Instagram users | 0.783 ** | 0.790 ** | 1.352 ** | 1.241 ** |
Individuals’ average level of spending per visit | 0.043 | 0.022 | 0.020 | |
Country’s geo-location data | 0.051 | 0.064 | 0.043 + | 0.065 + |
Main effect | ||||
Instagram travel influencers | −0.553 ** | 0.532 ** | ||
Moderating effect | ||||
Instagram travel influencers X Country’s geo-location data | −0.037 | |||
R2 | 0.725 *** | 0.729 + | 0.824 *** | 0.825 |
Adj. R2 | 0.727 | 0.725 | 0.820 | 0.821 |
ΔR2 | 0.725 | 0.003 | 0.097 | 0 |
F | 88.530 | 79.359 | 86.154 | 82.020 |
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Kilipiri, E.; Papaioannou, E.; Kotzaivazoglou, I. Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case. Sustainability 2023, 15, 6374. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086374
Kilipiri E, Papaioannou E, Kotzaivazoglou I. Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6374. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086374
Chicago/Turabian StyleKilipiri, Eleni, Eugenia Papaioannou, and Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou. 2023. "Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case" Sustainability 15, no. 8: 6374. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086374