Exploring social media affordances in tourist destination image formation: A study on China’s rural tourism destination

This study investigates the effect of social media affordances (SMAs) on tourist destination image formation from the technology affordances lens, and measures the mediating role of social presence and parasocial interaction (PSI). Through both qualitative and quantitative approaches to the empirical examination of 1751 pieces of tourist data collected from a two-wave survey approach, this study finds that SMAs has a significant direct relationship with cognitive image and affective image. The results also suggest that PSI partially mediate the effect of SMAs on cognitive image and affective image, and cognitive image and affective image under the influence of SMAs lead to conative image formation. These substantial findings could offer valuable insights for destination marketers into the development and adoption of SMA strategies, with the objective of cultivating and promoting a positive image of their destination in the tourism market.