Impulsive travel intention induced by sharing conspicuous travel experience on social media: A moderated mediation analysis

Abstract Not all travel decisions are based on a careful search for information. Tourists increasingly make such decisions on impulse, driven in part by the widespread use of social media. However, few studies have examined the psychological mechanism behind impulsive travel decisions. Utilizing two scenario-based experiments, we investigate the psychological mechanism and boundary condition under which perceived conspicuousness of travel experiences shared on social media influences tourists' impulsive travel intention. The results indicate that tourists are more likely to experience impulsive travel intention when they perceive shared travel experiences as conspicuous (vs. inconspicuous) consumption. This relationship may be due to tourists experiencing a greater sense of relative deprivation when they view others' experiences of conspicuous travel consumption that they have shared on social media. In particular, this effect is magnified for tourists with higher levels of materialism. The theoretical and managerial implications for tourism of this effect are discussed.