From Screen to Suitcase: What Turns Travel Content Into Reason to Pack Your Bags?

Travel blogs and vlogs can spark interest in a place, and beautiful footage or an entertaining story may not be enough to turn that curiosity into a real travel plan. A study titled 'From Content to Travel: How Blogs and Vlogs Shape Destination Diagnosticity and Visit Intention,' published in the Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, explores which types of digital travel content help people evaluate Khon Kaen, a less internationally familiar destination in northeastern Thailand. Researcher Raksmey Sann found that content becomes influential when it gives potential visitors credible, distinctive and practical evidence they can use to decide whether a destination suits them.

Useful Content Does More Than Create Interest

The study focuses on 'perceived destination diagnosticity,' which describes how well travel content helps someone understand, compare and evaluate a destination. It differs from simply finding a post useful, enjoying a video or forming a positive image of a place, because diagnostic content gives travellers enough meaningful information to judge whether the destination fits their interests, budget, schedule and other needs.

A lively vlog may hold a viewer's attention without answering basic questions about what they can experience, how much time they need or whether the trip is practical. A clear blog can still offer little decision-making value if its details are generic or outdated. Content with strong destination diagnosticity allows the audience to picture the visit, compare the place with other options and feel more confident about making a choice.

The research used the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework to explain this process. Seven features of travel content acted as the stimuli: novelty, reliability, understandability, interestingness, accommodation information, itinerary information and attraction information. Destination diagnosticity represented the traveller's internal evaluation, while intention to visit Khon Kaen represented the behavioural response.

A Survey Examined Seven Features of Travel Content

The researcher collected data between 1 and 30 August 2025 using online questionnaires distributed mainly through Facebook communities connected with tourism in Khon Kaen, along with ten responses gathered at Khon Kaen Bus Terminal 3. Participants had to be at least 18 years old and must have previously seen or read a travel blog or vlog about the destination.

After ineligible responses were removed, the final sample contained 403 people. Women made up 58.4% of respondents, men accounted for 41.4%, and one participant selected another gender category. More than half were aged between 18 and 24, while 85.9% held a bachelor's degree, making the sample largely young, university-educated and comfortable searching for travel information online.

Participants rated statements about the seven content features, how well the material helped them evaluate Khon Kaen and whether they intended to visit within the following 12 months. The results were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples. The model explained 86.4% of the variation in destination diagnosticity and 77.1% of the variation in visit intention, showing a strong statistical connection among the measured factors.

Attractions, Reliability and Itineraries Mattered Most

Attraction information had the strongest relationship with destination diagnosticity, producing a much larger effect than the other content features. Details about cultural sites, food, festivals, local communities, recreation and lesser-known experiences gave potential visitors a concrete basis for deciding what they could see and do in Khon Kaen. This type of information helped people connect the destination with their personal interests instead of viewing it as an attractive but uncertain idea.

Itinerary information made a meaningful difference because suggested routes, schedules and combinations of activities showed travellers how a visit could work in practice. Novel material strengthened evaluation by revealing unfamiliar experiences and helping Khon Kaen stand apart from better-known destinations. Reliable information supported confidence in claims about costs, transport, accessibility, opening hours and seasonal conditions.

Clear language, entertaining presentation and accommodation information did not have a strong separate effect when all the content features were studied together. Understandability may be a basic expectation rather than a quality that distinguishes one piece of travel content from another, while entertaining material can capture attention without supplying enough evidence for a decision. Accommodation details may add less value in blogs and vlogs because travellers can obtain specialised hotel information from booking platforms and property websites.

Novelty, reliability, itinerary guidance and attraction information were also indirectly connected with visit intention through this evaluative process, with attraction information producing the largest indirect association. The pattern suggests that content is more likely to encourage travel when it helps viewers make sense of a place rather than merely presenting it appealingly.

What Travel Creators and Destination Marketers Can Learn

Creators promoting lesser-known destinations should give attraction information the greatest attention, using firsthand explanations, visual demonstrations and practical details about local food, heritage sites, community experiences, seasonal events, entrance fees and accessibility. One-day, weekend and multi-day itineraries can organise those experiences by location, travel time, visitor interests and budget, allowing audiences to judge whether the trip is realistic.

Accuracy deserves equal care because incorrect prices, old opening hours and vague transport advice can weaken confidence. Creators can improve reliability by dating their visits, separating personal opinions from confirmed facts, disclosing sponsorships and updating outdated recommendations. Destination organisations and tourism businesses can help by supplying verified information and keeping creators informed about changes.

The survey captured opinions at one point in time, so it cannot prove that particular content caused people to plan a visit. Responses were self-reported, and a stated intention may not lead to an actual booking or journey. Strong overlap among some measurements may have inflated parts of the model, especially the connection between attraction information and diagnosticity.

The researchers did not ask whether participants had visited Khon Kaen before, so they could not tell if people were planning their first trip or thinking about returning. They also studied blogs and vlogs together, even though written posts and videos may affect travellers differently. Most participants were young and well educated, which means the findings may not represent all types of travellers. Future studies could compare different destinations, study blogs and vlogs separately, track people over a longer period and check whether their travel plans lead to actual visits.