Strangers Versus Acquaintances’ Social Media Engagement: How Does Interpersonal Intimacy Influence Tourists’ Revisit Intentions?
基于社会影响和归因理论，通过混合方法研究发现，熟人的社交媒体评论能提升游客重游意愿，而陌生人评论则相反；社交临场感起中介作用，且效果受平台类型、集体主义倾向和旅游活动类型调节。
Grounded in social impact theory and attribution theory, this mixed-methods study using walk-along interviews and scenario-based experiments reveals that social media engagement by acquaintances promotes revisit intention. Comments from close acquaintances elicit the strongest intention, while comments from strangers produce the opposite effect. Social presence mediates these relationships. The positive effect is stronger on narrowcasting platforms and more likely to occur among high collectivism tourists or those sharing relaxing tourism activities. Conversely, for low collectivism tourists or when sharing challenging tourism activities, the effect reverses, and engagement by strangers is more likely to boost revisit intention. These findings explore how interpersonal intimacy influences revisit intention from relationship strength and interaction motivation perspectives. In marketing practice, travel social media platforms can adjust their algorithms to push content posted by tourists participating in relaxing (challenging) tourism activities or from countries with high (low) collectivism to acquaintances (strangers).