INSTAGRAM’S INFLUENCE ON INDIVIDUAL’S CONSUMER DECISION MAKING PROCESS WHEN CHOOSING TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

2741 WORDS

The topic of the dissertation is Instagram’s influence that it has on individual’s consumer decision making process when choosing travel destinations to visit. The focus will be on the individual themselves and what makes them attracted to Instagram as a traveling tool. The two main influential factors I will look at are the opinion leadership of influencers and the imagery created by the posters and how it attracts these consumers. To be able to have the focus on the consumer behavior part, I will analyze the influences on the individual and analyze their interactions with Instagram travel influencers and the influences pictures have on their decision-making process. A main theoretical driver for this dissertation will be the idea of opinion leadership. Opinion leadership refers to an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users.

I have selected this topic because the idea of social media marketing is something that sticks out to me as an active social media user. I am interested in the consumer decision process behind traveling that involves the influences and the Instagram influencers. I am interested in seeing how many Instagram users interact with these accounts and how many of them use these influencers as the main reason for their next travel destination. I am interested in seeing how much of Instagram plays a part in where to visit.

When looking through all the data I have found so far, I came up with several of research questions I would like to solve while doing this disser