Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between characteristics of social media sites (SNS) and the intention of Pakistani tourists to visit South Korea while determining the role of usefulness, interestingness, and involvement of tourists. Research design, data and methodology: A research model was developed through the previous research, and the questioner-based survey was conducted on Pakistani tourists visiting Korea. The survey data was collected by following multiple hypotheses: the relationship between SNS tourism information and perception of SNS, the relationship between SNS perception and intention to visit, and adjustment of involvement in the relation between tourism information characteristics, and SNS perception. We used SPSS and AMOS24.0 statistical tools to analyze the hypothesis testing data. Results: Based on the data analysis, the study found that the characteristics of SNS have a positive effect on intention to visit via users' perception like usefulness and interestingness. The involvement has a moderating effect between SNS characteristics and users' perception. In the group with high involvement, the degree of influence of the quality factor of SNS on user perception was greater than in the group with low involvement. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that traveler's involvement has a moderating effect on the relationship between SNS characteristics and visit intention for Pakistani travelers visiting Korea. It shows that practitioners or researchers should establish and operate SNS strategies in consideration of user involvement.