Understanding Consumers’ Travel Live Streaming Watching Behaviors: The Role of Social Distancing and Lack of Mobility

Live streaming in tourism has attracted the attention of many scholars and has been considered significant to the recovery of tourism industry. Despite the increasing scholarly attention that travel live streaming received, factors influencing viewers’ intention to watch travel live streaming have not received adequate academic exploration. This study aims to examine the influences of social distancing and lack of mobility on viewers’ intention to watch travel live streaming. The mediating role of loneliness and the moderating effect of gender were also examined. A survey of 399 live streaming watchers was conducted and a structural equation modeling approach was used to test our hypotheses. Results show that social distancing and lack of mobility positively increase consumer loneliness, which in turn enhances travel live streaming watching, and such effect is stronger for females.