I want to go there too! Tourism destination envy in social media marketing

• Published in: Heliyon Vol. 9; no. 12; p. e22889
• Main Authors: Zheng, Yu-Hao, Xu, Tao, Shi, Guicheng, Jiang, Linli
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2023; Elsevier
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22889

Envy has been widely discussed as a type of consumption motivation and a consumer attitude towards specific consumer goods in the context of social media. However, research on envy in tourism consumption decision-making is still relatively scarce. Accordingly, adopting social cognitive theory while considering benign envy, this study discusses the impact of social media content on consumers' destination envy and behavioural intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey of 320 Chinese tourists who travelled to Macao, this paper develops and tests a conceptual framework. The results show that destination envy plays an intermediary role between social media content and consumer behavioural intention. Our findings thus integrate disparate literature streams while shedding light on the impacts of social media content on tourism consumers’ travel decisions during the COVID-19 era. •Integrates the literature on social media opinion factors and consumption envy.•Explores the influences of social media on the generation of destination envy.•Reveals the mediating role of destination envy in social media marketing.•Contributes to the literature on the role of benign envy in tourism marketing.•Provides insights into destination social media marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic.