Abstract:
Domestic tourism is the major portion of China's tourism business, around 88% of
total China travel and tourism spending stemmed from domestic travellers. It
contributes significantly to supporting regional economic growth, developing local
economic structures, fostering the expansion of associated sectors, boosting
employment, and stimulating domestic demand. But, during the COVID-19
outbreak, the arrival of domestic tourists in China has decreased significantly which
also affect the expenses of domestic tourist and by 2022 is not recovered yet from
2019, before COVID-19. This study aims to investigates the influence of travel
motivation and role of social media towards the destination image for Chinese
millennials traveling to Shanghai post-COVID-19. Valid samples are 242 Chinese
Millennial, who had never visited Shanghai before. All data was processed using
PLS-SEM (Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling) with SmartPLS
3.2.9. The results of this study demonstrate that all the independent variables
(Travel Motivation and Role of Social Media) have a positive influence towards
Chinese Millennials’ travel intention to Shanghai. Furthermore, destination Image
as the mediating variable is proven to have a positive influence towards travel
intention to Shanghai.
