Understanding the Influence of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Outbound Tourists’ Visit Intention

The valence of online user-generated reviews is an increasing important antecedents affecting tourist’s decision with the pervasion of Web 2.0 and information and communication technology. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on outbound tourists’ intention to visit a destination through a dual-process perspective. A research model was proposed based on the dual-route theory of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and theory of planned behavior (TPB). The research model was empirically tested with the data collected among the Chinese outbound tourists. The research results indicate that, tourist’s attitude towards a destination was positively influenced by argument quality of eWOM, and intention to recommend the destination before travel was positively influenced by attitude towards destination and source credibility of destination related eWOM. Outbound tourists’ intention to visit a destination was positively influenced by argument quality, attitude towards destination, and WOM intention. Several practical and theoretical implications are also discussed in the paper.