Journal of Tourism, Heritage & Services Marketing, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp.

25-29, 2017 25

Modelling the impact of social

media influencers on behavioural
intentions of millennials: The case
of tourism in rural areas in Greece
Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou
Alexander Technological Institute of Thessaloniki

Abstract: This paper examines the ways rural businesses can become attractive to
millennials using the Internet and the social media. It has become evident that the
prominent way to reach out to millennials is via social media accounts. Rural businesses
need to use the personal relationships they develop with their customers and expand these
relationships on social media. It is also apparent that traditional marketing fails to apply to
small rural businesses, whereas influencer marketing becomes a valuable asset for tourism.
The proposed model connects fame, image and activities with the Social Media influencer
and the way the decision making of the millennials is influenced when choosing to visit a
rural tourism destination.

Keywords: Rural tourism marketing, social media, influencer marketing, millennials

JEL Classification: L83, M1, O1

Biographical note: Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou holds a doctorate in agrotourism marketing

from the University of the Aegean and is a staff member of the Alexander Technological
Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece. Corresponding author: Chryssoula
Chatzigeorgiou, e-mail: chrxatz@farm.teithe.gr

1 INTRODUCTION Woods (2016) supports that force of persuasion rather than

share voice is more powerful when it comes to measure the
Service quality, customer satisfaction and re-visit intentions influential power of the influencer on the decision maker.
are some of the factors greatly researched being the key Market reach, frequency of impact quality of impact and
factors to ensure profitability and viability of a business closeness to decision are the criteria of a four-dimension
(Christou, 2015). Marketing experts relied on developing metric used by Brown and Hayes (2008) to measure
guest loyalty through service quality aiming at returning influence. The present study aims to identify the key factors
customers. Emotions have also been examined to contribute when measuring influence related to rural tourism.
in that sense (Chatzigeorgiou et al., 2009).
The relationship among service quality, guest satisfaction
and re-visit intentions in rural tourism have also been 2 SOCIAL MEDIA AND TOURISM
researched (Chatzigeorgiou & Simeli, 2017). The key
element, though, behind purchase is the concept of trust Television traditionally had the largest share in paid
(Christou, 2015). Trust needs to be further examined in advertising but in 2017 digital advertising spending
order to establish the factors needed to form trust in a brand. surpassed it (Woods, 2016).
Social media, on the other hand, is also a significant factor, Traditional Word of Mouth (WOM) has turned into E
which influences trust and is directly linked to viral WOM and influencer marketing has emerged. It is a form of
marketing where the advertising focuses on specific
marketing. Viral marketing is the process of individuals
individuals with a large number of followers. It is "the art
marketing to each other (Subramani & Rajagopalan, 2003).
According to Christou (2015), individuals who may act as and science of engaging people who are influential online to
share brand messaging with their audiences in the form of
social media influencers are trusted based on their
sponsored content" (Sammis, et. al., 2016)
reputation, predictability and competence.
Nowadays, anyone can become an influencer. Social media
provide the tool to anyone who builds an audience, to
Copyright © 200

© 2017 Authors. Published by Alexander T.E.I. of Thessaloniki Some rights reserved.

ISSN: 2529-1947. UDC: 658.8+338.48+339.1+640(05) Except otherwise noted, this work is licensed under
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1209125
Published online: 31 December 2017
26 Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou

influence that audience. The marketing industry needed to Gossling and Lane, 2014). However, they are usually well
cope with the growth of social media users and especially aware of their customers' needs. Rural economies have by
the millennials, the generation with the biggest purchasing now diversified from agriculturally - centered to service -
power. based economies (Gossling and Lane, 2014), making the
Recent studies reveal that consumers tend to believe way tourists consume the services, the experience of
recommendations from friends over all forms of advertising tourism, more important than both the tourist and the service
(Woods, 2016) and it is proved to trigger 11 times more (Hold, 1995).
return on investment than other forms of advertising Tourism in rural areas includes tourism in natural landscape,
(Kirkpatrick, 2018). tourism focusing on wildlife and tourism aiming at
In 2017, 67% of the individuals who used the Internet preserving the natural environment (Hall and Boyd, 2005).
logged in their Social Media account at least once a day It has been proved that the location itself is less important
(Eurostat, 2018), while 50% of individuals aged 16 to 74 than the activities carried out in the rural areas. Now,
(close to the EU - 28 respective percentage, which in 2017 tourists explore countryside in greater numbers compared to
was 54%) use the Internet to participate in social networks. the smaller numbers in the past (Hall et al., 2017). Rural
A person's identity comprises, nowadays, of daily posts, tourism providers need to identify those activities that may
shared photos, profile updates and post comments. In order be carried out in the countryside and be attractive to
to maintain personal relationships and be socially active, a millenials. Thus, tourism in rural areas may come much
Social Media account is by far a prerequisite. (Tsay-Vogel, closer to millenials and their lifestyle. Marketing those
2016). activities and tourism in rural areas should also become
compatible to millennials.
As millennials are the digital natives (Prensky, 2012),
3 RURAL TOURISM, MARKETING AND MILLENNIALS Internet - based booking platforms became a necessity for
the survival of tourism businesses. Rural tourism businesses
Each generation has its own values, expectation, skills and could not afford to ignore this marketing trend bringing
interests. fundamental changes in rural tourism marketing (Gossling
Generation Y includes people whose birth years are 1988- & Lane, 2014).
2002 and it is split into three different age groups: Combining this necessity with Internet based booking
Generation Why (1982-1985), Millennials (MilGens 1985- platforms and social media, the owners of rural properties
1999) and iGeneration (1999-2002). Millennials are the have now the opportunity of an e-adoption ladder (Martin,
central part of the Y generation (Pendergast, 2010). 2004) including email, social media (Facebook, Instagram,
Bennett (2014) claims that 74% of consumers make their etc).
purchasing decisions based on social media. The millennials Social media is the ability for anyone to communicate with
are the age group with the most purchasing power and the everyone. It includes six broad categories:, forums and
most active one in social media. It is the age group where message boards, review and opinion sites, social networks,
connecting to others is highly important. blogging, microbloogging, bookmarking and media sharing
Generation Y is also the hero generation based on their (Sterve, 2010). Research on social media is carried out in
stage of cycle, digital natives (Prensky, 2012) and their various fields, museums (Zafiropoulos et al., 2015),
main features include digital competences, conventional, destination image (Hernandez et al., 2016), travel
committed, they produce key influential international information (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010), etc.
leaders. Furthermore, Generation Y focus on how they feel, The impact of written reviews on social media can be
their friends and they are the most educated generation ever. damaging for a business (Papathanassis & Knowlle, 2011)
They constitute the new visitors in the tourism market making the social media engagement a one way road in the
(Pendergast, 2010). thrive of a rural business to survive and adopt to the rapidly
According to Iakovidou et al., (2005) the majority of rural changing marketing environment (Jeong & Jeon, 2008).
tourists comprises of young people (19-35 years old -
millennials), highly educated who choose a rural destination
according to the remarkable natural resources the
destination has to offer. Millennials is the target age group 4 FORMULATION OF HYPOTHESES AND PROPOSED
MODEL
of the current study.
Rural tourism was considered to be a small scale, low-
Rural businesses in Greece made a huge contribution within
impact phenomenon a "niche" within tourism markets
the economic crisis for young people. Well-educated,
stemming from sustainable development (Hall & Roberts,
unemployed young people searching for a dignified
2004, Lane, 1995, Küçükaltan, 2016) in contrast to the
employment pursued their professional future by returning
contemporary state where tourists are motivated by a wide
to families' homes and businesses in rural areas. Young
spectrum of factors not necessarily related to the rural
people who are digital competent and seek to attract people
landscape. Recreation has become a significant factor and
of their age to seek authenticity and experience activities in
raises questions regarding the proper planning and
rural areas.
management of rural areas (Hall, et al., 2017).
Researches highlighted the positive relationship between
Traditional marketing operations may not apply in small
social media influencer with purchase intention (Lim et al.,
rural businesses making it hard for the owners to realize the
2017). Millennials tend to accept meanings from Social
market within which their business operates (Lane, 1995,
media influencers whom they admire or consider as a
MODELLING THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS ON BEHAVIOURAL INTENTIONS OF
MILLENNIALS: THE CASE OF TOURISM IN RURAL AREAS IN GREECE 27
resemblance to themselves. In this framework social media Brand experience and satisfaction were also measured using
famous people (actors, singers ets) may use their digital Oliver's scale (1997) and influencers were measured using
expertise in order to influence millennials to visit rural area Sheer & Stern (1992) metrics.
settlements (Hypothesis 1: Famous people strongly The questionnaire was pilot tested by 23 millennials.
influence millennials to visit a rural tourism settlement). There were 273 usable questionnaires out of which 93
According to Hall et al., 2017, influencer marketing is (33,8) were filled in by men and 180 (65,5%) were
defined according to the number of friends/followers the responded by women. The sample size satisfies the required
influencer supports. It is hypothesised that: The number of minimum sample size for the use of structural equation
followers of the influencer positively influences the trust of a modelling technique (Bollen, 1989).
millennial in an influencer marketing (Hypothesis 2). The respondents were approached during three youth
However, since the millennials are well-educated young festivals which took place in Athens, Thessaloniki and
people, they need to identify that the influencer actually Patras respectively.
believes in rural tourism values and authenticity is one of There were no problems with convergent and discriminant
the features of the influencer's personality. It is therefore validity and factor analysis was used to examine the
hypothesised that: construct validity of the measures. Cronbach alpha of 0.70
- The rural tourism values the influencer marketing as needed by Nunnally (1978) was exceeded by all scales.
embraces affect the trust of a millennial in an influencer AMOS extension in the SPSS 24.0 was used to test the
marketing (Hypotheses 3) hypotheses. The fitness of the measurement model to the
- The authentic experience the influencer marketing data was initially examined and then the fitness of the
communicates via social media influences the trust of a theoretical model was tested.
millennial in an influencer marketing (Hypotheses 4) An important prerequisite in order to use SEM methodology
Finally, the fee an influencer marketing may receive in is for the data to be normally distributed. In the current
order to promote a product or a service may act as a burden study both skewness and kurtosis are within the acceptable
in the efficacy of the campaign. It is therefore hypothesized range so as to use SEM.
that The fee an influencer marketing receives negatively According to table 1, four out of six hypotheses tested were
influences the target audience (Hypothesis 5). found significant.
The final hypothesis is connected to the average use of
social media. It is hypothesized that the daily use of social Table 1: Hypotheses significance test
media affects the influential rate of the influencer marketing
(Hypothesis 6). No Hypothesis p-value Results
The proposed model is as follows: H1 Famous people strongly 0.021 Significant
influence millennials to
visit a rural tourism
INFLUENCER
MARKETING settlement
NUMBER OF H2 The number of 0.000 Significant
FOLLOWERS
followers of the
influencer influences
INFLUENCER TRUST IN DECISION
the trust in an
MARKETING INFLUENCER MAKING influencer marketing
PERSONALITY MARKETING
H3 The rural tourism 0.549 Not
values the influencer significant
marketing embraces
ACTIVITIES affect the trust of a
PRESENTED BY
INFLUENCER millennial in an
influencer marketing
Figure 1: Research model H4 The activities the 0.000 Significant
influencer marketing
carries out at the
5 FINDINGS AND TESTING OF HYPOTHESES destination affect the
trust
The target population for the study was millennials (age H5 The authentic 0.511 Not
group 19-33). Respondents were given a structured experience the significant
questionnaire and were asked to think of their social media influencer marketing
accounts and their attitudes when interacting in social media communicates via
when responding. social media influences
The measures of each construct derived from multiple the trust
sources; participants were asked to record the average daily H6 The fee an influencer 0.005 Significant
use of Social Media (Shrum et al., 1998). Trust was marketing receives
measured via the respondent's faith in the social media used negatively influences
(Christou, 2011) whereas brand linking involved the the target audience
millenial's preference of a social media brand over others. H7 The daily use of social 0.003 Significant
28 Chryssoula Chatzigeorgiou

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