The impacts of YouTube tourism content and YouTuber attributes on tourists’ destination images and behavioral intentions: Focusing on potential Korean tourists to Mongolia

Abstract

Nowadays, YouTube serves not only as a video platform but also as a search engine for online content, providing its viewers with diverse forms of communication and information. The recent and rapid growth of information communication technology has also significantly impacted the tourism industry. Notably, YouTube has emerged as a prominent and burgeoning platform for the creation and dissemination of tourism-related content. This study aims to examine the impact of YouTube tourism content and YouTuber attributes on tourists' destination images and behavioral intentions, specifically focusing on Mongolia, a destination that captures the attention of Koreans but remains relatively unknown. To this end, a sample of 250 adults, who watched Mongolian YouTube videos, was collected using a non-probability sampling method. The analysis revealed that YouTube tourism content and YouTuber attributes had positive influences on cognitive and affective destination images. Furthermore, the cognitive and affective destination images showed significant positive effects on recommendation intentions and visit intentions. Resultingly, all hypotheses suggesting the positive effects of YouTube tourism content and YouTuber attributes on tourists' destination images and behavioral intentions were supported. This study provides meaningful academic implications by contributing to the underdeveloped field of Mongolian tourism research and offers practical insights for the creation and delivery of tourism marketing content via YouTube.