SOCIAL MEDIA AND MILLENIALS: EFFECTS, COMPLEXITIES, AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Abstract

This article provides a critical review of previous studies on the intertwining between social media and tourist behaviour among millennials. This literature review aims to map out the tendencies of those studies—as evidenced by their theoretical perspectives, methodological frameworks, and arguments—and show the gaps they have left. A survey of the literature was conducted by Googling a number of keywords/subjects, and critically assessing the results. This article contents that most previous studies have focused excessively on the effects of social media on millennial tourists' behaviour in the pre-trip stage and have viewed millennials as passive agents; few have been concerned with how millennials use and actively construct meaning through social media. Such studies focus on the trip stage and post-trip stage, in which the millennials make various choices regarding their social media usage. Studies have only rarely concerned with the tourist destinations and attractions themselves. The attractiveness of the portrayal of (man-made) tourist destinations on social media is inseparable from their creative design processes. This article suggests that further studies should investigate the creative processes through which tourist destinations are designed and attract millennial tourists.