Assessing The Impact Of Social Media On Tourism Destination Decision Making Among Foreign Students In China

China is growing drastically with tourism industry which is helping to boast the nation’s economy and enhancing development.This thesis looked into the importance of social media,which has an involvement in decision-making.With social media as a pivot which plays an important role in the fast-growing tourism and hospitality industry.Social media provides ample opportunity for adverts,bookings,payment,feedback,and sharing of social experiences.The study evaluated social media impact on tourism destination amongst foreign students in China through questionnaire administration.Data show that foreign students rely on social media platforms to make important tourism related decisions amongst other things.The main aim of this study is to assess the impact of social media on tourism destination decision-making by foreign students in China.Because of the limitless capabilities that social media provides,it is gradually transforming diverse business ecosystems.Adopting Uses and Gratification theory,a quantitative research approach was used to achieve the sole of the present study on some selected Province Universities where foreign universities students are located.In doing so,Partial Least Square and Structural Equation Modeling and SPSS statistical software were used in processing the valid responses(272).The findings of the study revealed that all eight proposed hypotheses were significantly having a positive relationship with tourism destination decision-making.This means that social media in the 21st century largely contribute to tourists’ decision-making within the fraternity of China.This study offers several implications for theory and practice.This paper takes the foreign students in China as the research object.The foreign students in China in this study indicated that tourists can quickly acquire information about a destination and make bookings with relative ease.Moreover,all the foreign students in China in this study specified that social media increase tourists’ satisfaction with their trip.Similarly,all the foreign students in China in this study acknowledged that comments and feedbacks on social media impact tourist decisions at the reservation stage.Again all the foreign students in China in this study acknowledged that social media develops brand awareness and reliability.Based on the findings of the study,the following recommendations were achieved;Tourism study is required to determine the extent to which social media platforms play a variety of functions throughout the process.Instead of causing quick and direct behavioral changes,social media should raise awareness and affect travelers’ opinions and attitudes over the long run.Tourists’ decision-making is a sequential process based on a set of clearly defined stages.As a result of this,it must entail identifying the problem as well as setting goals and objectives,formulating a list of potential solutions,gathering information on the potential solutions under consideration,and making a final selection from among the options that have been evaluated and provision of feedback for future decisions.Social media platforms must allow individuals and companies to spread information and reach and influence a large number of people,therefore they are commonly utilized by consumers and organizations.Because of the influence and complexity of social media platforms,it’s critical to know when and how visitors utilize these networks during the various stages of their travel decision-making processes.This study illustrates the importance of revealing context when conceptualizing the effect of social media on tourists’ destination decisions.Destinations may show visitors how easy it is to organize a trip by using social media.1.The conclusion of this study using sample technique signified that social media can influence an individual’s decision to visit a tourist destination.As a result of social media’s ability to combine various components like text with video,music,and images,it offers a number of promotional benefits.This combination provides a significant advantage in integrated marketing communications.Social media is a new trend but fast growing and therefore it must be managed well.Popular social networks like Facebook,WeChat,and YouTube have gained in popularity,and trends suggest that educated consumers and young people have begun to be more linked with them every day,therefore being a part of their daily lives.Regardless of the numerous and variety of social media platforms in the present universe,most foreign students in China use Facebook more than the other social media,followed by wechat to get information about tourism because these have visuals and allows for personal experience sharing comes as evaluations and reviews,information,bookings,and feedbacks.Social networks are effective promotional tools because of their widespread use,reliability,and interest in the information they give.Another good feature is that these platforms are hosted as software applications on handy smart phones devicesyoung-chaps spend more time on their hand-held devices.Therefore,service providers should take advantage of this and reform products towards these set of customers as social media is a powerful tool with far reaching implications in many aspects of life.