Destination’s social media communication and emotions: An investigation of visit intentions, word-of-mouth and travelers’ facially expressed emotions

Abstract Much research has been done on travelers’ emotions and behavioral intentions during the visit stage and the post-visit stage. This paper, however, investigates the importance of emotions in the pre-visit stage in social media communication and how they influence travelers’ intention to visit and word-of-mouth communication. Two laboratory experiments (n = 211 and n = 137) and a field study (n = 270) were conducted in a tourism destination in the midst of the Alps to test the proposed research model. Findings reveal that a smiling (vs. non-smiling) endorser in a destination’s social media post more positively influences travelers’ intention to visit and word-of-mouth than a non-smiling endorser. A marketer-generated post further reinforces the positive effect of a smiling endorser on intention to visit, while for a user-generated post, the smile does not matter. Emotional contagion is found as underlying mechanism for these effects. Implications for destination marketers and research are outlined.