Restaurants can become the ambassadors of unknown destinations and the main question is how to attract tourists to such products through social media. The objective of this study is to understand how digital influencers affect attitudes, consumption and travel intent, as well as perceived risk toward trying restaurants serving local food.
A quantitative survey with 421 valid responses was implemented and a PLS-SEM model was created. In addition, multi-group analyses were undertaken to understand the effect of two highlighted, important preferences: those toward local food and the risk-taking during the pandemic.
According to the results, digital influencers working on Instagram have a strong and significant effect on the consumption intent and travel intent of consumers toward visiting restaurants; however, their role concerning attitude can be questioned. Based on multi-group analysis, the decision-making processes of different segments were identified based on their risk-taking activity during the pandemic and their attitude toward local food.
The complex model presented here, rooted in the TRA framework, is novel from the viewpoint of analysing the effect of digital influencers on travel intent to a specific restaurant, through perceived risk: particularly by identifying the segments and analysing the differences in their decision-making process, and the role of digital influencers.
