Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons^™

Developing A Conceptual Framework To Understand Why Local Residents Contribute To Online Travel Communities, Bingjie Liu

All Theses

Online travel communities have reshaped travel behaviors and decision-making of people around the world. In addition to the communication between different travelers, it is noted that local residents also contribute to the information sharing process. Why do local people offer help online? This is a question that has not been answered through a rigorous research process. By exploring why local residents' display helping behavior in online travel communities, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a conceptual framework to understand local residents' contribution to online travel communities. Two models rooted from social psychology to understand the helping …