A new study published in Information Technology & Tourism reveals that travel social media influencers (TSMIs) operate through psychological mechanisms that contradict established theories of persuasion. The research, conducted by Naser Pourazad, Lara Stocchi, and Lucy Simmonds, finds that influencers are often more effective when consumers are not actively engaged in information processing, challenging conventional marketing methods.
“The relationship between awareness of the TSMI and TSMIs as a source of information was positive across all involvement levels. However, the effect was stronger for low compared to high involvement, suggesting that as involvement increases, the positive effect weakens,” the researchers report.
The study indicates this outcome “aligns with Chatzigeorgiou and Christou’s observation that TSMIs can be particularly effective when consumers are not actively engaged in information processing,” such as during casual social media browsing rather than deliberate travel research.
Nature of Persuasion Across the Customer Journey
The research demonstrates that different persuasion mechanisms operate at each stage of the customer journey.
At the pre-decision stage, both awareness of the influencer and awareness of the destination significantly affect consumers’ perception of TSMIs as information sources. However, the study’s interaction plots revealed that “for low compared to high involvement, suggesting that as involvement increases, the positive effect weakens.”
This finding suggests that travel influencers serve as “metacognitive sources of information” during casual browsing, rather than as traditional information sources, during active research.
At the purchase stage, both ad informativeness and ad persuasiveness demonstrated significant positive effects on travel decisions, while ad identification (recognizing content as advertising) showed minimal direct impact.
The researchers found that ad informativeness had a particularly strong effect on visit intentions (β = 0.539), with transparency about promotional content neither significantly hindering nor facilitating travel decision-making.
For the post-purchase stage, the study found that TSMIs “create behavioral templates that followers later emulate as they go through the customer journey,” with visit intentions emerging as a powerful driver of recommendation intentions.
Implications for Travel Marketers
This revised understanding of influencer persuasion offers several practical implications:
Target Passive Browsing: Marketers might achieve better results by designing influencer content for casual browsing contexts rather than focusing solely on active travel research moments.
Invest in Content Quality: The strong effects of informativeness and persuasiveness, regardless of ad identification, suggest prioritizing content quality over concerns about disclosure prominence.
Plan for Journey-Stage Transitions: Strategies should acknowledge how influence mechanisms shift across the customer journey, with different factors becoming crucial at each stage.
Consider Factor Combinations: The identification of effective factor configurations suggests marketers should focus on combinations of elements rather than optimizing individual factors in isolation.
The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative design involving 530 Australian consumers exposed to simulated Instagram posts featuring real travel influencers. The researchers used a multi-method approach combining partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA).
The researchers note that their approach addresses limitations in previous studies that “focused primarily on one specific stage of the customer journey related to TSMIs, lacking a more holistic perspective.”
David Adler is an entrepreneur and freelance blog post writer who enjoys writing about business, entrepreneurship, travel and the influencer marketing space.
A new study published in Information Technology & Tourism reveals that travel social media influencers (TSMIs) operate through psychological mechanisms that contradict established theories of persuasion. The research, conducted by Naser Pourazad, Lara Stocchi, and Lucy Simmonds, finds that influencers are often more effective when consumers are not actively engaged in information processing, challenging conventional marketing methods.
“The relationship between awareness of the TSMI and TSMIs as a source of information was positive across all involvement levels. However, the effect was stronger for low compared to high involvement, suggesting that as involvement increases, the positive effect weakens,” the researchers report.
The study indicates this outcome “aligns with Chatzigeorgiou and Christou’s observation that TSMIs can be particularly effective when consumers are not actively engaged in information processing,” such as during casual social media browsing rather than deliberate travel research.
Nature of Persuasion Across the Customer Journey
The research demonstrates that different persuasion mechanisms operate at each stage of the customer journey.
At the pre-decision stage, both awareness of the influencer and awareness of the destination significantly affect consumers’ perception of TSMIs as information sources. However, the study’s interaction plots revealed that “for low compared to high involvement, suggesting that as involvement increases, the positive effect weakens.”
This finding suggests that travel influencers serve as “metacognitive sources of information” during casual browsing, rather than as traditional information sources, during active research.
At the purchase stage, both ad informativeness and ad persuasiveness demonstrated significant positive effects on travel decisions, while ad identification (recognizing content as advertising) showed minimal direct impact.
The researchers found that ad informativeness had a particularly strong effect on visit intentions (β = 0.539), with transparency about promotional content neither significantly hindering nor facilitating travel decision-making.
For the post-purchase stage, the study found that TSMIs “create behavioral templates that followers later emulate as they go through the customer journey,” with visit intentions emerging as a powerful driver of recommendation intentions.
Implications for Travel Marketers
This revised understanding of influencer persuasion offers several practical implications:
The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative design involving 530 Australian consumers exposed to simulated Instagram posts featuring real travel influencers. The researchers used a multi-method approach combining partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA).
The researchers note that their approach addresses limitations in previous studies that “focused primarily on one specific stage of the customer journey related to TSMIs, lacking a more holistic perspective.”
The full study is available here.
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