Immersion and Behavioral Intention in Social Media: TikTok’s ‘Travel Live Streaming’ Perspective

The purpose of this study is to discover and evaluate the feasibility of travel live streaming (TLS) for social media (TikTok). Inspired by the uses and gratifications theory, stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, and the compensatory internet usage model (CIUM), this study develops a theoretical framework of social interaction, telepresence, immersion, user satisfaction, and behavioral intention. The originality of this study is mainly reflected in the innovation of the chosen topic and research results. This is one of the first studies to empirically examine and discuss the immersion and behavioral intentions of users watching travel live streaming. The immersion brings some new meaningful information and extends the application of the ‘S-O-R model’ and ‘the uses and gratifications theory’. This study utilized a quantitative research approach, with data collected online and analyzed from 274 Chinese users. We found that social interaction and telepresence are positively correlated with immersion and user satisfaction. Further, Immersion also positively influences user satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The findings provide valuable insights to users, potential tourists, live streamers, and destination managers. However, there are some limitations to this study. For example, there is a lack of assessment of the anchor persona (looks, personality presentation style, etc.). In addition, there are differences between user-host interactions and user-user interactions, which should be distinguished and studied in more detail in future studies.