1. Introduction
Social media are considered one of the most rapidly growing communication technologies [
1,
2,
3]. Although social media is represented in a variety of forms such as photo sharing sites (e.g., Flickr), video creation and information sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), online communities, social tagging (e.g., Digg), and newsreaders (e.g., Google Reader), the most popular ones are social networking sites (SNS) (e.g., Facebook) [
4,
5,
6]. The popularity of SNS can be proven by the number of people using them. According to Statista [
7], an online statistical portal, the number of SNS users has grown from 2.14 billion in 2015 to 2.46 billion in 2017, and is predicted to achieve 3.02 billion by 2020. Continued interest in SNS use can be explained by the social and affective benefits users receive from SNS [
8].
SNS are virtual communities that enable their members to connect and interact with other users on a particular subject and share knowledge and experiences [
9]. Many researchers within information and communication technologies (ICT) and social psychology areas have begun investigating SNS use, focusing on the main reasons that influence SNS acceptance and continuous use [
8,
10], psychological outcomes of SNS use [
4,
11], and major indicators of social networking [
12,
13].
Since many tourists actively use SNS to search, share, and explain their personal travel stories and experiences [
14], tourism organizations and destination managers emphasize the role of SNS in contributing to understanding and responding to the tourists’ preferences [
15]. Thus, SNS use has emerged as a trend in smart tourism research, attracting deeper and deeper interest of more tourism and hospitality researchers [
16,
17]. Generally, tourism studies have concentrated on the role of SNS in the contexts of tourism information searches [
1], sharing tourism experiences [
16], tourism-related electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) [
18], and designing tourism websites [
19]. However, despite of the importance of satisfaction with tourism experience in terms of positive recommendations, revisits, and additional economic and socio-psychological benefits [
17], studies exploring the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience are scarce.
Several studies of SNS use that emphasize the role of social support [
17,
20], illustrate that social support can play an important role in the tourism experience. Everyday, a large number of tourists share photos and videos of places they have recently visited or are visiting, write blogs and micro-blog posts to communicate with family and friends, and seek support from both people they know and strangers, without any time or space constraints [
21]. Despite the obvious significance of social support in the tourism setting, very few studies have been conducted [
17].
Meanwhile, several researchers have paid attention to the concept of tourists’ positive emotions [
22,
23]. Positive emotions have been widely investigated by marketing researchers due to their crucial role in the decision making process [
23,
24]. In this context, the positive emotions of tourists can affect their decision making process. However, on-site experience as well as decision-making is very important for tourists who consume the experience. That is, how satisfied tourists were in a destination is more important than how they made their decisions [
25]. Schmitt [
26] mentioned the importance of consumers’ emotions in their experience and argued that emotions have a profound effect on consumers’ experience. Additionally, Mitas, Yarnal, Adams, and Ram [
22] found that tourists’ positive emotions change their experience during different trip stages. In this vein, although the role of tourists’ positive emotions in their tourism experience is important, there is a lack of research investigating this. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between tourists’ positive emotions and satisfaction with tourism experience.
In the context of the relationship between social networking and satisfaction with tourism experience, commitment is another important factor. However, there is no evidence of the existence of a direct positive relationship between commitment to SNS and satisfaction with tourism experience. Tourists who actively participate in SNS are seen as belonging to communities and seem to be socially influenced by other community members [
16]. Pühringer and Taylor [
27] argue that the intended audiences of tourism blogs and SNS such as Facebook are mainly friends and family members. Thus, the tourists’ desire to get social support from SNS can be well understood. By enabling members to feel social support and contact with others, SNS can also lead to tourists’ experiencing positive emotions when using SNS during a trip. Wang, Park, and Fesenmaier [
28] argues that the tourists who share their tourism experiences online tend to choose to participate in different activities that will lead to positive emotions, which, in turn, will influence their satisfaction with tourism experience. In a study by Kim, Fesenmaier and Johnson [
29], it is also stated that the tourists’ emotions may be heavily influenced by interactions with friends and others via social media. Many years ago, many researchers explored the issue of commitment in the context of organizational behavior [
30]. Recently, the issue is attracting a high interest by SNS and tourism researchers [
8,
16]. Existing studies have tried to understand the reasons and motivational factors as to why people use SNS and share tourism experiences, but no study has yet investigated the role of commitment in the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is three-fold. First, this study determines how SNS use is related to perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment. Second, the study investigates the relationship between perceived social support and positive emotions and commitment, and the relationship between commitment and positive emotions. Third, the study explores how perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment influence satisfaction with tourism experience.
5. Data Analysis and Results
To analyze the proposed research model, we employed a partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis, which has been widely used in theory testing and confirmation. The PLS is a multivariate technique to test structural models, which estimates the model parameters minimizing the residual variance of the whole model dependent variables, does not require an parametric conditions and is appropriate for a small sample size [
100]. Moreover, because of one of the variables (commitment) that constitutes this study model is the second-order formative construct, we apply the PLS technique to verify our research model. Considering the advice from previous studies, using a PLS-graph program, we undertook a two-stage methodology in data analysis including the development and evaluation of the measurement model. In addition, the structural model was assessed and the relationships between the constructs, as specified by the research model, were evaluated [
101].
5.1. Measurement Model
This study models commitment as a second-order formative construct. To confirm the reliability and validity of the measurement model, we assessed convergent validity and discriminant validity.
As shown in
Table 3, all measures are proven to be robust in terms of their reliability, since all standardized loadings are statistically significant as they are higher than minimal threshold of 0.70 [
102] (see
Table 4). First, Cronbach’s α for all constructs exceeds the minimal threshold of 0.70 [
103]. Furthermore, the composite reliabilities ranging from 0.85 to 0.94 also exceed the recommended threshold value of 0.70 [
104]. Finally, the average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct was greater than 0.5, varying from 0.69 to 0.85. These results indicate that convergent validity of the measurement model was adequate.
Discriminant validity was assessed based on Gefen and Straub’s [
105] guidelines. There are two conditions under which the discriminant validity can be established: first, the correlation of the latent variable scores with the measurement items should be higher on their theoretically assigned factor than on other factors; and, second, square root of the AVE of each construct should be higher than squared correlations of other constructs [
105].
Table 4 depicts the cross loadings of each construct.
Table 5 shows correlations between constructs, where the diagonal elements represent the square roots of the AVEs. As can be seen in the table, the square root of each construct’s AVE is greater than its correlations with any other construct. Hence, the adequate discriminant validity of the measurement model was supported.
5.2. Structural Model
The proposed research model was examined for explanatory power and path significance using a bootstrapping technique. A nonparametric bootstrapping procedure with 500 re-samples was performed in the PLS analyses. The results are represented in
Figure 2 and
Table 6.
H1, H2, and H3 address the structural relationships between SNS use and perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment. All three hypotheses are supported, revealing significant positive relationships: SNS use significantly influences the perceived social support (β = 0.497, p < 0.001), positive emotions (β = 0.249, p < 0.001), and commitment (β = 0.228, p < 0.001).
H4 and H5 concern the relationships between perceived social support and positive emotions and commitment. H6 concerns the relationship between commitment and positive emotions. H4 and H5 indicate that perceived social support has a positive effect on both positive emotions (β = 0.172, p < 0.05) and commitment (β = 0.660, p < 0.001). H6, in turn, demonstrates that there are positive relationships between commitment and positive emotions (β = 0.411, p < 0.001). Therefore, H4, H5, and H6 are supported.
Finally, H7, H8, and H9 address the relationships between perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment and satisfaction with tourism experience. Perceived social support seems not to have a significant influence on satisfaction with tourism experience (β = 0.04, non-significant), rejecting H7. However, both positive emotions (β = 0.526, p < 0.001) and commitment (β = 0.205, p < 0.01) are shown to positively influence satisfaction with tourism experience, thus supporting H8 and H9. Therefore, while H7 is not supported, both H8 and H9 are supported.
6. Discussion
This study provides further understanding as to how SNS use can have an impact on satisfaction with tourism experience. The present research focuses on the role of perceived social support, and employs the social influence theory and broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions to discover how the tourists’ perceived social support using a particular SNS, commitment to the SNS, and generating positive emotions engendered by SNS use influence their satisfaction with tourism experience. The results of our study provide empirical evidence that there are significant relationships between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience mediated by both commitment and positive emotions.
This study has revealed that there are positive relationships between SNS use and perceived social support and commitment. These results are similar to the results of previous researchers who argue that SNS use enables its users to build strong relationships and exchange socially [
106]. Specifically, Choi, Kim, Sung, and Sohn [
106] measured the strength of respondents’ network through questionnaires related to social capital and the number of friends connected to SNS, and found that Korean users tend to form smaller and stronger networks through SNS compared to American users. This implies that social relations can be formed through SNS. Therefore, this study supports Choi, Kim, Sung, and Sohn’s [
106] results by showing that SNS user can cause perceived social support and commitment. The results regarding the social support are consistent with the study by Kim, Fesenmaier and Johnson [
29] supporting that tourists sharing various tourism information and tourism experiences including posting photos or blogs often seek and perceive social support from their SNS friends during different travel stages. Moreover, the positive relationships between perceived social support and commitment can be also understood. Based on the results provided by our study, we argue that developing and maintaining social relations with SNS friends and perceiving social support from them eventually lead to tourists’ commitment to a specific SNS group.
The results concerned with positive emotions have found statistical relationships between SNS use and positive emotions as well as positive relationships between both perceived social support and commitment, and positive emotions. These results are consistent with prior studies that reveal that SNS use affects positive emotions such as love or satisfaction in terms of romantic relationships [
107]. Moreover, studies of Facebook provide empirical evidence that Facebook use contributes to the positive emotions of its users by providing social support [
108].
Furthermore, similar to prior studies, our study has found that positive emotions positively influence satisfaction with tourism experience [
109,
110]. Moreover, this study has revealed that positive emotions are the most influential determinant of satisfaction with tourism experience. Generally, in tourism studies positive emotions are confirmed to have a favorable effect on both satisfaction and behavioral intentions [
111]. Since both satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions are indicators of satisfaction with tourism experience, we argue that there are significant relationships between positive emotions and satisfaction with tourism experience.
This research has also revealed the existence of positive relationships between commitment and satisfaction with tourism experience. Existing literature argues that tourists’ experiences may be heavily impacted by interaction with other people and different SNS groups [
29]. Hence, the results of our study confirm this assumption, allowing us to suppose that more committed tourists are likely to use SNS more often and communicate with their friends during different tourism stages, which will eventually lead to an enhanced satisfaction with tourism experience. Wang [
92] highlights that tourism experience can be determined not only through visiting a particular tourism destination, but in sharing the memories, experiences, and knowledge obtained from this visit. Hence, several researchers try to address this matter by investigating the role of commitment on tourism experience sharing behavior revealing statistically significant relationships [
16]. Our study supports the previous researchers demonstrating that commitment may greatly influence satisfaction with tourism experience.
While eight out of nine hypotheses were supported, one hypothesis that is concerned with the relationships between perceived social support and satisfaction with tourism experience was rejected. This result is different from the results of previous research [
29], which revealed statistically significant direct relationships between two constructs. Our study shows that, while social support does not shape the satisfaction with tourism experience directly, it influences the satisfaction with tourism experience through positive emotions and commitment. It is obvious from the dissimilarities in the results among studies that the concept of perceived social support needs to be investigated more carefully to determine its role in the context of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience.
7. Conclusions and Future Research
This study proposes an integrated theoretical framework by combining the social influence theory and broad-and-build theory of positive emotions to investigate whether SNS use can influence satisfaction with tourism experience. Existing literature emphasizes the role of social media and SNS use in the tourism industry in terms of the social presence’s influence on tourism information search, sharing tourism information and/or satisfaction with tourism experience. The results provided by our research confirm the important role of SNS use in the tourism area and further extend existing research by providing empirical evidence that are significant relationships between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience. Based on the results, we can argue that although there are positive relationships between SNS use and perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment, only positive emotions and commitment are proven to have a statistically significant impact on satisfaction with tourism experience. It can also be underscored that both commitment and positive emotions are mediators in the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience as well as in the relationship between perceived social support and satisfaction with tourism experience. Moreover, the results have found that positive emotions are the most influential determinant of satisfaction with tourism experience, thus emphasizing the role of broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions in the context of our study.
Our study brings in several theoretical and practical implications for both academics and practitioners. First, the results of the present research contribute to the understanding of the essence of the role of SNS use in the tourism industry highlighting that SNS use significantly impacts satisfaction with tourism experience. Second, our research framework can provide an important contribution to the comprehension of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience from the perspective of positive emotions and commitment since this research is one of the few that tackles this specific matter, employing social influence theory and broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Finally, the results accentuate the role of positive emotions in the context of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience. From this point of view, our study extends the existing marketing, social commerce, and tourism studies that focused only on the role of positive emotions in experiential decisions [
23], and behavioral intentions [
112], or tried to assess the positive emotions of leisure tourists [
22].
Furthermore, tourism marketers and SNS managers can obtain practical implications from the results of the given research. Since the importance of SNS use in satisfaction with tourism experience is evident, destination marketers should encourage tourist to share their satisfaction with tourism experience and support others’ experience and to have a positive perception of the destination. In other words, tourists can positively perceive destination related their experiences because they can feel psychological benefits by sharing their satisfaction with tourism experience. Additionally, sharing the satisfaction with tourism experience enhances the activation of SNS, so that SNS managers can also simulates SNS by inducing tourists to share their satisfaction with tourism experience and support other tourists.
Despite the important theoretical and practical implications, this study has some limitations as well. First, the generalizing of the results is dubious because of its sample circumscribed with South Korean tourists using only one specific SNS. Since Western users prefer to use another SNS, other SNS should be investigated as well to confirm the results of the present study. Second, this study places emphasis on satisfaction with tourism experience from the perspective of perceived social support, positive emotions, and commitment. There are probably other determinant factors influencing satisfaction with tourism experience in the context of SNS use that should be investigated to provide a more complete understanding of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience.
Therefore, we suggest that future researchers examine the theoretical research model provided in this study focusing on the representatives of various cultures using different SNS. Future research can also undertake a comparative study to investigate whether various SNS differ from each other in their contribution to the satisfaction with tourism experience. Moreover, the construct of perceived social support should be examined more scrupulously by future studies to determine its role in the relationships between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience. There may also be room for a more integrated model that includes factors determining SNS use and consequences of satisfaction with tourism experience affected by SNS use to provide a more clear and complete picture of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience.
This research attempts to casually explore the relationships between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience by applying social influence theory and broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions as theoretical background to explain the concepts of commitment and positive emotions, respectively. In addition, this study aims to contribute theoretically to the existing literature by providing more knowledge about the role of perceived social support and positive emotions in the satisfaction with tourism experience and shedding light on the comprehension of the commitment in terms of the relationship between SNS use and satisfaction with tourism experience, as well as bring practical contributions to both tourism marketers and SNS managers.