THE EFFECT OF ONLINE REVIEWS ON TRAVEL INTENTION AND TOURIST EXPENDITURE ON WEIZHOU ISLAND: A DEMAND-SIDE EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

 Online reviews constitute a decisive informational input shaping tourists’ behavioural and financial decisions, particularly by influencing perceived trust, destination image, and spending levels. Understanding how review valence and review volume affect travel intention and expenditure is therefore essential for explaining demand-side dynamics in island tourism economies. This study advances demand-side tourism economics by empirically connecting online review attributes with tourists’ spending behaviour and expenditure outcomes. Focusing on Weizhou Island, the study investigates the effects of review valence and review volume on travel intention and tourist expenditure, while examining the mediating function of travel intention through the Stimulus–Organism–Response and Information Integration frameworks. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey was administered to 150 individuals who had either visited Weizhou Island or planned to do so. Data were analysed using SPSS 26 with a validated Likert-scale instrument, and correlation and mediation analyses were conducted via the PROCESS Macro to evaluate both direct and indirect relationships. The findings demonstrate that both review valence and review volume exert significant positive effects on travel intention and tourist expenditure, with travel intention acting as a mediating mechanism in these relationships. Positive and abundant online reviews were shown to directly enhance spending behaviour, providing empirical support for the role of cognitive and affective processes in tourists’ economic decision-making. Overall, the results confirm the applicability of the SOR and IIT models, indicating that psychological intention functions as a key bridge between digital perceptions and economic actions, with important theoretical and managerial implications for sustainable tourism development.