'I want to record and share my wonderful journey': Chinese Millennials' production and sharing of short-form travel videos on TikTok or Douyin

Seeking to understand how involvement with social media influences travel experiences, the current investigation explores the reasoning and social justifications of tourists' engagement with travel videos on the short-form video sharing platform - TikTok. Using phenomenology, data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 12 tourists who had experiences consuming, producing, and sharing travel videos on TikTok. Findings suggest that consuming and creating TikTok touristic fantasies, hashtagging a #wonderfuljourney through sharing, and storing my meaningful life in a 'public' diary are three primary reasons for tourists' engagement in TikTok travel videos. Results show that the daily use of TikTok, a visual storytelling platform, has extended to the tourism context, resulting in the eroding boundaries between tourism experiences and everyday life and contributing to an understanding of the 'Leisure-Tourism' Continuum in Web 2.0. It advocates DMOs to produce tourism videos based on tourist needs and the distinctness of the platform of TikTok.

Automated summary

This study investigates the reasons behind tourists' engagement with travel videos on the short-form video sharing platform TikTok. Through semi-structured interviews with 12 tourists, who consume, produce, and share travel videos on TikTok, the study finds that consuming and creating TikTok touristic fantasies, hashtagging travel experiences, and storing meaningful life moments in a public diary are the primary motivations for tourists' engagement with TikTok travel videos. The study suggests that the use of TikTok as a visual storytelling platform extends to the tourism context, blurring the boundaries between tourism experiences and everyday life.