Impact of Social Media Influence on Domestic Camping Tourists’ Motivation in an Island Country

‘Camping is not time spent but invested’. Camping one of the best forms of spending time out in the open and marveling at the wonders of this creation. When it comes to the best camping places in the world Sri Lanka stands on the top of the list. Sri Lanka is an island with a land which contains enormous places from the high mountain chains and large plains to beaches and lagoons, from wildlife safari points to dense forests. It is simply inconceivable how many spots in the ways of a camper’s preference list this figure is irresistible. The purposes of this research are to determine how social media influence has an effect on the motivation of the domestic camping tourists in Sri Lanka. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research to examine the impact of content type, information quality, attractiveness, peer pressure, and content exposure to travel motivation. The participants were selected by employing cluster sampling technique, with 923 of them responding to the research by providing data both in form of text data through response to questionnaires and content analysis. The findings reveal positive and meaningful correlations between all the dimensions of social media influence and the travel motivation, with appealing visual images as well as peer pressure influencing travel motivation most prominently. They clearly demonstrate how social media affects tourism decisions especially where it is specialized like domestic camping. The present study gives important implications for Sri Lankan tourism marketers as it is revealed that excellent social media utilization, relevant and appealing content, and customer experience as seen in reviews may positively influence motivation towards travelling domestically.