the effect of trust in social media contents on the purchasing process of touristic products

This study aimed to examine the effects of the contents created on social media by influencers, tourists, tourism businesses and destination management organizations on the touristic product/service purchasing process. Quantitative research design was used in the study. Questionnaire method was used as data collection method. The questionnaire form consisted of three parts. In the first part, there are demographic questions, in the second part there are statements about the purchasing process, and in the third part there are statements about the trust factor in tourists, influencers, and the content produced by tourism businesses and destination management organizations. Data were collected from 473 tourists using convenience sampling method. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that the content shared by tourists, influencers, business and destination management organizations on social media has a significant effect on all stages of the purchasing process of tourists. Among these stages, it was concluded that the content created by the tourists has the highest impact at the stage of desire creation, the enterprises and destination management organizations in the information search stage, the content produced by the tourists at the stage of evaluating the alternatives and the influencers produced had the most impact in the purchasing stage. It was seen that only the content produced by the influencers during the information search phase did not have a significant effect. It is recommended that various campaigns and discounts be made to encourage tourists to produce content; and when collaborating with influencers, managers should ensure that the influencers are reliable.