How does travel social media influencer humour influence viewers’ visit intention?

This research aims to investigate the impact of travel social media influencer (SMI) humour on viewers’ visit intention based on the trust transfer theory. Three scenario-based experiments were undertaken from 28 February to 28 September 2023 with the help of the Credamo platform through a purposive sampling method. The findings indicate that the humorous content posted by SMIs influences viewers’ visit intention. Trust in the influencer and trust in the destination mediate the effect. This paper further identifies the moderating role of physical attractiveness. This research finds that the positive impact of humorous content posted by travel SMIs is stronger for those who are less physically attractive. Practically, this research suggests that destinations should cooperate with SMIs who are often sharing humorous content. More importantly, this research also suggests that less physically attractive travel SMIs ought to be better at producing humorous content than more physically appealing influencers. Theoretically, this research not only expands the use of the trust transfer theory to travel SMI marketing context, but also uncovers the underly mechanism and boundary condition of the effect.