Does food awaken travel intentions through para-social interaction? – evidence from Bilibili

ABSTRACTFood vlogs are an important way to promote food tourism, but the effect of food vlogs on potential tourists’ travel intentions is effectively discussed. This study discusses a new interactive method, namely, bullet comments, which is an important means of communication between audiences and vlog content with high real-time interaction. We analyzed the effect of food vlogs on audiences’ travel intention expression. The main results were as follows. Firstly, we identified 126 highly engaging sessions. A typology analysis of highlight moments was carried out, mainly including food experience, fun, place, interaction, and production techniques. Secondly, by constructing five kinds of bullet comment themes, the flow relationship between vlog content and bullet comment content was established. Finally, we proposed three approach hypotheses to explain the process mechanism of travel intention expression. In the para-social interaction, the interactive participation of bullet comments effectively improves the audience’s active perception of food and destination.KEYWORDS: Food vlogstravel intentionspara-social interactionbullet commentsBilibili Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 42271251].