The impact of the information quality in social media on the formation of the destination image in the mind of tourists

The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effect of the quality of content information on Instagram about Isfahan on the formation of the destination image in the minds of tourists.

The present research is an applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation and survey in terms of method and it was conducted with a quantitative approach. The instrument of collecting data is a questionnaire that has suitable validity and reliability. The research questionnaire is derived from the standard questionnaire and includes two main sections of demographic questions and specialized questions, the questions of the specialized section include 28 closed-ended questions with a 5-point Likert scale. The statistical population of this study consists of Iranian Instagram users who refer to the pages and hashtags on Instagram that contain information about Isfahan to get information about Isfahan. Due the unknown statistical population, the sample size is equal to 384 people and the sampling method is convenience Sampling and finally 340 valid questionnaires were collected. The collected data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique (SEM) and SMART PLS software.

The quality of content information on Instagram has a positive and significant effect on the cognitive and affective image of the tourist destination of Isfahan.

It can be concluded that the tourism information that is produced and shared on Instagram about Isfahan has good standards and quality in terms of content factors (value-added, relevancy, timeliness, completeness, interestingness) and they have been able to have a positive and meaningful impact on the mental image of tourists who sought to obtain information about this destination.