The Effect Model Of User-Generated Content On Tourists’ Destination Choices

In the era of Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and new social media, the User-Generated Content (UGC) is becoming more and more important in people’s daily life, such as online shopping. It has also become a new type of E-Word of Mouth for tourism, effecting tourists’ decision making, especially their destination choices of whether planning trips to those lesser-known or newly emerging destinations.This paper conducts a case experiment of Koh Lipe, Thailand, which is a lesser-known destination for Chinese tourists. The questionnaire surveys and personal interviews were also undertaken for collecting data and the Stimulus Organism Response framework was adopted for model construction, based on the Theory of Impulse Buying and the Theory of Innovation Resistance.The findings show that UGC serves as a stimulus to arouse tourists’ desires, impulse and intentions to lesser-known or newly emerging destinations. However, other personal factors, such as travel experiences and destination preferences will also effect tourists’ perceived risks, thus influencing their innovation resistance. The higher innovation resistance they have, the less likely they are willing to travel to lesser-known or newly emerging destinations.Based on the experiment and statistical analysis, the paper also discuss the marketing strategies that the marketing organizations of lesser-known or newly emerging destinations destination should adopt.