Influence of users’ psychosocial traits on Facebook travel–related behavior patterns

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2018. The principal aim of the article was to explore the psychological aspects of Facebook (FB) users’ travel-related behavior on FB. This especially refers to the time they post their travel-related information, the type of information they post (photos, videos, comments, etc.), when they watch the photos of other people, are they keen to post the information when their impressions are positive or negative, and what level of privacy they keep (with whom they are sharing travel-related information). A total of 804 general FB users from Serbia were included in the study. Analysis of the relationship between travel-related behavior on FB and the different psychosocial aspects of FB use (PSAFU) can be of great importance for online destination marketing. This could help in identifying the patterns of tourists’ FB behavior that result in sharing their travel experiences via electronic word-of-mouth as well as in predicting the FB behavior of future tourists. The study revealed that all analyzed dimensions of PSAFU are related to certain travel-related behavior on FB, explained from 1.9% to 13.7% of these behaviors. The strongest and most consistent predictor of travel-related FB behaviors was ‘Virtual self’ dimension. On contrary, the study showed that Compensatory use of FB is not related to travel-related behavior on FB to a great extent, thus is not of much interest to destination marketers. The further implications are discussed in the article.