Abstrait

Involvement effect on high-educated tourists’ perceived credibility of social media

Huamin Li, Yun Cao, Qiyao Pu

Involvement has long been studied as a key factor to determine the individual’s perceived credibility about particular information source. The perceived credibility of well-educated people is critical for the destination crisis management because people with high education level always play a significant role of public opinion leaders. To determine the relationship between involvement and individual’s perceived credibility of social media, current research first determine the dimensionality of involvement, then examine the effectiveness of new-generated factors in evaluating perceived credibility, and the study also re-examine the dimensions that are utilized to evaluate credibility from prior research. The result reveals that ‘interest’ significantly influences perceived credibility; and among perceived credibility, depth is excluded from the linear regression model, which is contrary to previous research. Current study also provide some practical implications to minimize the negative impact of certain crisis on tourism destination.