This study aims to examine whether and how congruency among influencer-generated content (IGC) shapes viewers’ travel inspiration. Specifically, it investigates the mediating role of experiential-sharing attribution and the moderating role of prior visit experience in the relationship between IGC congruency and travel inspiration.
The mixed-method approach was adopted. An interview-based pre-study identified topic congruency as a salient dimension of IGC congruency in multi-influencer campaigns. Two online experimental studies were conducted with over 500 Instagram users in the USA and the UK to test the proposed model. IGC congruency was operationalized through experimental manipulation (incongruent topics vs congruent topics), and experiential-sharing attribution, inspired-by state and inspired-to travel state were measured. Mediation and moderated mediation effects were tested using Hayes’ PROCESS macro.
Results indicate that incongruent IGC elicits stronger inspired-by states, which enhance inspired-to travel states. This effect is mediated by experiential-sharing attribution, with incongruent IGC more likely attributed to experience-driven motives. Contrary to expectations, prior visit experience does not moderate this effect, suggesting that incongruent IGC stimulates inspiration among both first-time and repeat visitors.
This research conceptually clarifies topic-level IGC congruency as a key content alignment across multiple influencers and demonstrates its role in shaping attributional inferences and travel inspiration. By integrating attribution theory and customer inspiration theory, this study provides theoretical insight into how multi-influencer content structures influence inspirational outcomes and offers practical guidance for destination marketers on designing topic-diverse influencer campaigns.
