Analyzing visit intention involving electronic word of mouth, perceived risk, motivation and destination image - The case of millennials living in Ho Chi Minh city

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impacts of electronic word-of-mouth, perceived risk, motivation on destination image and visit intention of millennials living in Ho Chi Minh City. A valid sample of 275 respondents were collected via deploying convenient and snowball sampling method and then analyzed by PLS-SEM to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results show that electronic word-of-mouth and motivation were found to positively impact destination image and visit intention while perceived risk was discovered to have negative influence on these two factors. Besides, the mediation role of destination image between three factors including electronic word of mouth, perceived risk, motivation and visit intention is also confirmed. Academically, this study provides a new combination of main factors influencing travel intention including perceived risk, which is rarely discussed in travel intention. Practically, tourism industry and agencies can utilize this research result as a reliable source to design their firms’ implementation. Keywords Electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM), perceived risk, motivation, destination image, visit intention, Partial Least Square.