Social return and intent to travel. (February 2018) - Boley, B. Bynum
Abstract: In recognition that not all travel experiences are evaluated equally, there is the opportunity for different travel experiences to generate varying levels of "Social Return." "Social Return" is the amount of positive social feedback that one's social media posts of travel generate. This paper develops the Social Return Scale (SRS) and uses the scale to predict 758 U.S. travelers' intentions to visit the country of Cuba. The CFA of the SRS revealed strong construct validity based upon factor loadings above 0.85, an average variance explained estimate of 86%, and a construct reliability coefficient of 0.91. The SRS also had a positive and significant relationship with intention to visit Cuba across six structural equation models that varied by time horizon (1 year, 5 year and 10 years) and the inclusion of Theory of Planned Behavior constructs. Results suggest that "Social Return" is a salient symbolic factor in the destination selection process. Highlights: Scale developed to measure anticipated social return from social media posts. Social Return Scale (SRS) validated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Anticipated social return found to influence intent to visit Cuba. Social Return adds variance to the Theory of Planned Behavior. New tool for destination marketers to measure the symbolic value of the destination.