Can “Live Streaming” Really Drive Visitors to the Destination? From the Aspect of “Social Presence”

TLDR

Live‑streaming technology combined with tourism represents a significant evolution in travel experiences, yet empirical evidence linking it to travel intention remains scarce. This research aims to determine whether live streaming influences travel intention and to advance the literature on live‑streaming tourism. Using 614 questionnaires and structural equation modeling, the study tests hypotheses about the impact of live streaming on travel intention. Results show that live streaming boosts travel intention by enhancing trust through destination image, interaction, and production, confirm trust’s role in tourism management, and provide one of the earliest empirical insights into this relationship.

Abstract

The combination of live-streaming technology and tourism is an important development in the evolution of tourism experiences. Research on live-streaming tourism is becoming popular, but empirical studies on the relationship between live streaming and travel intention remain underexplored. The aim of this article is to determine whether live streaming has an impact on travel intention. This article collects 614 questionnaires and uses structural equation models (SEMs) to test the relevant hypotheses. This study makes some contributions to the literature on live-streaming tourism. First, it explains the relationship between live streaming and travel intention from the perspective of social presence: The presence of a destination image, the presence of an interaction, and the presence of production can effectively improve people’s trust and, in return, influence their travel intention. Second, this article verifies the role of trust in tourism management. This article is one of the earliest studies on the relationship between live streaming and travel intention, which has significance for the development of tourism management–related theories and practical management.