SOCIAL MEDIA TO DESTINATION: THE ROLE OF CONTENT AND COMMUNICATION QUALITY IN DRIVING TOURIST VISIT INTENTION AND DECISION

Abstract

The background of this research is the potential of social media as a powerful marketing tool in the tourism industry. This study tests a model that analyzes the direct influence of content quality and communication quality on social media on tourists' visit decisions, as well as their indirect influence mediated by visit intentions. The method used is a quantitative explanatory method with a variance-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis technique through Partial Least Squares (PLS) with the help of SmartPLS 4.0 software. A total of 120 questionnaires were analyzed and showed that the measurement model (outer model) has met the validity and reliability criteria, and the structural model (inner model) has good predictive power (Q² = 0.565). The results of hypothesis testing indicate that all direct and indirect effects are significant. Communication quality was found to be the strongest predictor of visit intentions. Overall, exogenous variables were able to explain 85.9% of the variation in Visit Decisions. In conclusion, visit intentions play an important role as a partial mediation mechanism. The practical implication of this research is that destination managers should focus not only on the visual quality of content but also on the interaction and responsiveness of communication to build intention and ultimately drive the decision to visit.