Purpose: This study examines how user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms shapes university stu-dents’ visit intention. Drawing on a configurational perspective, it investigates how UGC usage, perceived im-portance of UGC, need for information, destination familiarity, and planning complexity combine to explain high and low visit intention.
\nMethods: A quantitative survey was conducted among university students studying in Portugal and Spain. The data were analysed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), which is appropriate for identifying multi-ple configurations of conditions associated with the same outcome.
\nResults: The findings reveal two configurations associated with high visit intention and three configurations associat-ed with low visit intention. High visit intention is associated with combinations involving UGC engagement, plan-ning complexity, information need, and low destination familiarity. Low visit intention is associated with different combinations involving low UGC usage, low information need, and high destination familiarity.
\nImplications: The study shows that UGC does not influence visit intention in a uniform way. Tourism businesses and destination managers targeting students should design UGC strategies that reduce uncertainty, address infor-mation needs, and simplify complex planning situations.
", "lang": { "id": "eng", "title": { "en": "English" } }, "type": { "id": "abstract", "title": { "de": "Abstract", "en": "Abstract" } } } ], "copyright": "Copyright (C) 2026 Authors", "creators": [ { "affiliations": [ { "id": "014837179", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "014837179", "scheme": "ror" }, { "identifier": "grid.45349.3f", "scheme": "grid" }, { "identifier": "0000 0001 2220 8863", "scheme": "isni" } ], "name": "Iscte \u2013 Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa" } ], "person_or_org": { "family_name": "Dias", "given_name": "\u00c1lvaro", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "0000-0003-4074-1586", "scheme": "orcid" } ], "name": "Dias, \u00c1lvaro", "type": "personal" }, "role": { "id": "contactperson", "title": { "de": "Kontaktperson", "en": "Contact person" } } }, { "affiliations": [ { "id": "014837179", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "014837179", "scheme": "ror" }, { "identifier": "grid.45349.3f", "scheme": "grid" }, { "identifier": "0000 0001 2220 8863", "scheme": "isni" } ], "name": "Iscte \u2013 Instituto Universit\u00e1rio de Lisboa" } ], "person_or_org": { "family_name": "Nechaeva", "given_name": "Alisa", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "0009-0004-0639-0131", "scheme": "orcid" } ], "name": "Nechaeva, Alisa", "type": "personal" } } ], "description": "Submitted: March 2026 \u25aa 1st Revision Submitted: April 2026 \u25aa 2nd Revision Submitted: May 2026 \u25aa Accepted: June 2026 \u25aa Refereed Anonymously
\nJEL Classification: L83, M31, M3
\nAuthor Contributions: Conceptualization, A.D. and A.N.; methodology, A.D.; software, A.D.; validation, A.D. and A.N.; investigation, A.N.; data curation, A.N.; writing—original draft preparation, A.D. and A.N.; writing—review and editing, A.D.; supervision, A.D.; funding acquisition, A.D. All authors have read and agreed to the pub-lished version of the manuscript.
", "identifiers": [ { "identifier": "2529-1947", "scheme": "issn" } ], "publication_date": "2026-06-05", "publisher": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing", "resource_type": { "id": "publication-article", "title": { "de": "Zeitschriftenartikel", "en": "Journal article" } }, "rights": [ { "description": { "en": "" }, "icon": "cc-by-nc-nd-icon", "id": "cc-by-nc-nd-4.0", "props": { "scheme": "spdx", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode" }, "title": { "en": "Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International" } } ], "subjects": [ { "subject": "user-generated content" }, { "subject": "visit intention" }, { "subject": "decision-making" }, { "subject": "social networking sites" } ], "title": "The impact of user-generated content on travel destination choices: A configurational approach" }, "parent": { "access": { "owned_by": { "user": "29272" }, "settings": { "accept_conditions_text": null, "allow_guest_requests": false, "allow_user_requests": false, "secret_link_expiration": 0 } }, "communities": { "default": "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278", "entries": [ { "access": { "member_policy": "open", "members_visibility": "public", "record_submission_policy": "open", "review_policy": "closed", "visibility": "public" }, "children": { "allow": false }, "created": "2023-11-15T16:47:06.835740+00:00", "custom_fields": {}, "deletion_status": { "is_deleted": false, "status": "P" }, "id": "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278", "links": {}, "metadata": { "description": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing (JTHSM) is an international, open-access, multi-disciplinary, refereed (double blind peer-review) journal, aiming to promote and enhance research in tourism, heritage and services marketing.", "organizations": [ { "id": "00708jp83" } ], "title": "Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing", "type": { "id": "organization" }, "website": "https://www.jthsm.gr/" }, "revision_id": 4, "slug": "jthsm", "updated": "2023-11-15T17:00:36.134822+00:00" } ], "ids": [ "a5ce82a0-5e09-4676-a969-5cf114912278" ] }, "id": "22748959", "pids": { "doi": { "client": "datacite", "identifier": "10.5281/zenodo.22748959", "provider": "datacite" } } }, "pids": { "doi": { "client": "datacite", "identifier": "10.5281/zenodo.22748960", "provider": "datacite" }, "oai": { "identifier": "oai:zenodo.org:22748960", "provider": "oai" } }, "revision_id": 4, "stats": { "all_versions": { "data_volume": 4635488.0, "downloads": 13, "unique_downloads": 13, "unique_views": 18, "views": 20 }, "this_version": { "data_volume": 4635488.0, "downloads": 13, "unique_downloads": 13, "unique_views": 18, "views": 20 } }, "status": "published", "swh": {}, "updated": "2026-09-14T13:51:48.670764+00:00", "versions": { "index": 1, "is_latest": true } }