Impacts of electronic word-of-mouth from social networks sites on the intention to purchase tourism accommodation of Gen Z in Vietnam

Social networking sites (SNSs) have recently and significantly spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) amongst Gen Z tourists in Vietnam. However, the underlying process by which customer-to-customer (C2C) eWOM from SNSs affects tourism consumers has yet to be thoroughly studied. The author of this paper introduces a comprehensive research model that concentrates on the impacts of C2C eWOM using the information/persuasion relationship as regards the intention to make purchases. This research gathered data from 371 Vietnamese participants through traditional paper questionnaires. The collected quantitative data was processed through SPSS. The statistical results suggest that perceived persuasiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness positively correlate with eWOM usefulness from SNSs. Also, eWOM usefulness was confirmed to increase the probability of eWOM adoption, which, in turn, can boost the purchase intention toward the tourism accommodations proposed in the eWOM. This empirical study can enable marketers to understand the impacts of eWOM from SNSs, especially from key opinion leaders (KOLs), on consumer purchase behaviour of tourism products. Accordingly, our findings can inspire marketers to plan and execute effective SNSs marketing campaigns to generate trustworthy and valuable C2C eWOM, thus increasing the intention to purchase tourism accommodations.