Impact of social media marketing on destination attractivness and travel intention : The case of Djibouti

The purpose of conducting this study is to examine the influence of social media marketing on destination attractiveness and travel intention, it is also aimed to identify the role of destination attractiveness impacting travel intention, and assess its mediating role. An online questionnaire was used to investigate tourists' responses using the judgmental sampling method, a total of 400 valid questionnaires were retrieved. A quantitative approach using confirmatory factor analysis was applied, and through SmartPLS software the data was assessed to test the hypothesis. The findings revealed that social media marketing significantly influences destination attractiveness and travel intention. Destination attractiveness has demonstrated that it is a significant antecedent for travel intention and its mediating effect has received empirical evidence. In addition, the results showed that social media marketing and destination attractiveness will stimulate the travel intention of tourists toward traveling to Djibouti hence their relationship was positive and significant.