The Effect of Using Online Media on Changes in Tourists' Thinking through Information Sharing and Persuasion

Today, travelers have a lot of confidence in what consumers published online in the form of reviews and newsgroups about travel. The purpose of this study is to investigate "the effects of online media (consumer surveys, personal resources, advertisements) on changes in tourists’ thinking through information sharing and persuasion. Online media is a set of Internet-based applications that rely on the technological foundations of the Web and enable users to create and share content. The research method is descriptive-survey and applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population of the study includes European tourists in Tehran who were selected based on the available sampling method and using Cochran's formula, 384 people have been chosen as the sample size of the study. Statistical analysis was performed using structural equation method using SPSS and AMOS software programs. To determine the causal relationship between the variables, using the structural equation model method and significant levels, in order to test the hypotheses, P-value less than 0.05 was considered. The results of this study included 16 main hypotheses that have been examined. The results show that online media, image format, message framing and the effect of  interactions with tourists have a positive and significant effect on information sharing and persuasion. Also, sharing the  information by tourists affects persuasion, and persuasion affects and changes the thinking.