Demystifying the effect of social media eWOM on revisit intention post-COVID-19: an extension of theory of planned behavior

The present study intends to unwrap the influence of social media electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on revisit intention post-COVID-19 applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Two additional constructs, viz., eWOM and destination image, have been undertaken in the present study to enhance the robustness of the TPB model. An online questionnaire was employed to collect data, and the research relied upon 301 correct and useable responses. The survey's population includes potential tourists who intend to revisit India post-COVID-19. SPSS 20 and AMOS 22.0 were used to analyze the data. The posited model was validated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings indicate that all of the constructs under study, namely "electronic word of mouth (eWOM), destination image (DI), attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC)," significantly and positively influence "tourists' revisit intention (RI)" post-COVID-19. These constructs explained approximately 71% (R2 = 0.709) of the variance in the revisit intention post-COVID-19. A number of theoretical and practical implications can be delineated to make recommendations to the ministry of tourism, tour and travel agencies, central and state government-owned tourism departments, marketers and promoters of travel destinations. The distinctiveness of the present study lies in the fact that it measures the influence of eWOM on revisit intention post-COVID-19 in the Indian context by incorporating destination image with the TPB model.

Scale development and validation for usage of social networking sites during COVID-19.

This research aims to explore the usage of social networking sites in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve the objective, this study develops and validates a scale to measure the usage of social networking sites. Data was collected via a google form link through social networking sites in India viz. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and WhatsApp. A total of 204 responses were found accurate and useable for the study. The population of the study includes people residing in India. Data was analyzed applying SPSS 20 and AMOS 22.0. To design and validate the scale, both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used in conjunction with each other. The EFA results indicate a six-factor structure, explaining 73.43% of the cumulative variance, with all the items loading above 0.70. Thus, all the 20 items of six constructs meet this threshold limit. Therefore, this 20-items questionnaire emerges as an effective tool for assessing social networking usage. This study developed and validated the scale of usage of social networking sites to measure the six constructs informativeness, education, entertainment, shopping, socialization and social cause. Social media developers and analysts can use this scale from a technological standpoint to redesign and refine their websites for a better user interface. Since the research is primarily focused on India, extrapolating the results to other countries is difficult.