Factors Influencing Purchase Intention Among Online Users to Buy Tourism Services in Malaysia

Background - Nowadays, lots of people engage with social networking sites to purchase their products or services. Sometimes, they will be influenced by the social media influencers who appeared online to share their knowledge and experience about the certain products and services. The travel posts that are shared by the social media influencers bring impact on the online users to make their decision in buying the tourism services. Purpose - The objective of this study is to identify the factors influencing the purchase intention among the online users to buy tourism services in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - The research methodology in this study is the quantitative research, as the self-administered questionnaires are designed and used to collect the data from the targeted population. The structural equation modelling (SEM) is used in this study to analyze the data. Findings/Expected Contributions- Parasocial interactions between social media influencers and followers influence the purchase intention among the online users to buy tourism services. It provides a better guidance and insight to the marketers to improve their marketing strategies to adopt the influencer marketing to promote their tourism services. Research limitations - It can do the comparison among different social platform such as Instagram and YouTube, to know better the customer engagement online. Originality/value - The construct of audience participation is included to make the framework more comprehensive and complete. Besides, the value congruence are added to examine the influence of parasocial interaction of social media influencers and followers on purchase intention on tourism services