Leisure time posts on WhatsApp status drive travel and tourism consumption

PurposeThe present study aims to examine whether leisure time posts shared on WhatsApp status drive to travel and tourism consumption among users.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, discriminant analysis was employed to test hypotheses and identify essential factors.FindingsThe study indicated that the eight most contributing factors are expressing happiness, planning leisure time, views and comments, attractiveness, inquiring about places, preferring to post, nice way of expression and relax. These factors came from the latent variables of attitude, motivation and self-expression. Overall, the main influencing factors are internal (attitude and motivation), followed by an external factor i.e. self-expression. Additionally, the findings indicated that these significantly and positively impact travel and tourism consumption.Practical implicationsThe discriminators identified in the study would guide tour and travel agencies and the agencies' managers on how best to adopt WhatsApp and WhatsApp's status application to influence aspiring travelers.Originality/valueThis study enlarges the existing literature by integrating three factors, attitude, motivation and self-expression, into a model to influence the behavioral outcomes of aspirational travelers using WhatsApp status.