Introduction

Social media and mobile devices have penetrated into people’s lives, and digital media tools have become the major marketing tools (Pour et al., 2023). In this era of excessive information industry, tourism industry is increasingly relying on digital information technology to acquire customers (Sakas et al., 2022). Digital information technology can not only play a marketing role but also can establish a close relationship with customers and become an important source of information for customers (Cristobal-Fransi et al., 2023). Li Ziqi, a famous blogger from China, has over 10 million followers on YouTube. Li Ziqi’s videos showed the real process of rural production in China, attracting a lot of attention from users at home and abroad (Hu et al., 2022). Likewise, on the TikTok platform, the topic #chongqing has received nearly 540 million page views. In August 2023, A travel blogger @travelih with 420,000 followers on TikTok posted a short video about Chongqing, China with the caption: Chongqing is the craziest city. This short video has been viewed more than 5.5 million, received 420,000 likes, and nearly 100,000 collections. Tourism short videos let more people know about China and visit China. The communication power and influence of short video platforms are considerable.

Short video is a novel platform and technology, so Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) can have a good prediction effect on it. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is an effective model for predicting the application effect of new technology. Previously, there have been a number of researchers according to the characteristics of the research object to expand and modify the model (Wang et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2022). Some researchers point out that consumer behavior theories such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) can successfully predict consumers’ motivation and behavioral intention (Shahab et al., 2021).

In recent years, the research of new technology under the background of marketing has attracted the attention of researchers (Shahab et al., 2021). Existing research on tourism field mostly focused on the tourist destination image perception, tourist satisfaction and the influence mechanism of tourism consumer behavior (Beerli et al., 2004; Jebbouri et al., 2022). In the field of influence mechanism study, few researchers focused on the driving factors of digital content marketing (such as short videos content). That is to say, currently few researchers use marketing as an external variable to study tourists’ behavior. But short video platforms (such as TikTok) have become a form of promotion and marketing in the tourism industry (Zhou et al., 2023). With the application of short video marketing becoming more and more common on social media, short video marketing on social media is worth our in-depth discussion (Huang, 2021). Therefore, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) still needs to be continuously updated.

In order to attract users’ attention, tourism short videos content needs to be engaging (Holliman et al., 2014). These unique tourism short video contents can arouse users’ intention to travel (Wu et al., 2023). In the tourism short video marketing content must be brilliant. So we take the characteristics of tourism short videos content marketing as the research object to discuss its influence on tourist behavior. According to the literature, we have divided the characteristics of content marketing into four dimensions: Informational Content (INC), Entertainment Content (ENC) and Emotional Content (EMC), and Authentic Content (AC). Informational content represents the information that is helpful and resourceful (Zhao et al., 2020). Entertainment Content (ENC) is a kind of content type that can bring people enjoyment, fun, and other happy mood (Stollfuß, 2020). Emotional Content (EMC) can evoke the user’s emotional response by telling the story, which can have positive or negative emotions (Wu et al., 2023). These three characteristics are the common characteristics of content marketing division. At the same time, some researchers point out that if the concept of “authenticity” is introduced into the tourist experience, then the satisfaction of the tourists will be regulated (Engeset et al., 2014). This demonstrates that tourists are very concerned about the real feelings of tourism. Authentic Content (AC) means that the content presented by the tourism short videos are consistent with the objective situation of the tourist destination (Mody et al., 2020). Some researchers found that in the environment of technology and the Internet, the real feelings of users about the information presented by technology will also stimulate consumption behavior in tourism (Xu et al., 2023). So we pay special attention to the impact of Authentic Content (AC) of tourism short videos on tourists’ behavior intention.

This study raises the following research questions: RQ1: What is the role of content marketing of tourism short videos in Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)? RQ2: Can the dimensions of content marketing of tourism short videos (Informational content, Entertainment content, Emotional content and Authentic content) affect users’ perception and behavior? RQ3: How to improve users’ perception of tourist destinations and promote them to form their willingness to travel through tourism short videos content marketing? To answer some of these questions, in this study, we built an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to study how tourism short videos content marketing characteristics affect the user’s tourism behavior intention. We took the characteristics of tourism short videos content marketing as external variables into the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to discuss how tourism short videos content marketing influence users’ behavior intention.

This study contributed to both the theoretical and practical aspects. Firstly, we found that the content marketing of tourism short videos mainly includes informational, entertainment, authentic, and Emotional content. After this investigation, we found that all the characteristics can significantly affect the users’ Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU). Secondly, this research enriched the emerging research field of tourism digital content marketing, aiming to provide new ideas for the digital marketing of tourism destinations and tourism short videos content. Finally, this research enriched the research of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the field of tourism.

Literature review

Tourism short videos

The short video is a type of video that lasts from a few seconds to a few minutes. It is more concentrated and fragmented than the average video. It has the characteristics of high frequency and short duration, and is suitable for people to watch in their leisure time (Li et al., 2022). Short video platform can be traced back to 2005. YouTube was established and launched a short video-sharing service (Cheng et al., 2013). In 2011, the first short video-sharing software Viddy was born, which provided users with fast video editing, synchronous sharing, and other functions.

Nowadays, the utility and influence of short videos are more and more valued by the industry and academic circles. In terms of short video feature research, Cheng et al. (2013) proposed the sharing characteristics in the YouTube short video platform. In terms of short-term video marketing, Dong et al. (2023) based on 10,240 micro-blog short videos to study how and when brand short videos promoted consumer participation. Similarly, tourism marketing has also focused on short videos as a form of communication. Many destination management organizations try to make short videos to attract tourists by photographing destination landscapes (Cao et al., 2021). The tourism field has also begun to pay attention to both tourism and short video together. tourism short videos can be divided into emotion-oriented tourism short videos and information-oriented tourism short videos. It refers to the video types in which users share their comments or personal views on the destination (Wu et al., 2023). Such as tourism strategy short video, travel Vlog short video, destination scenery short video, tourism story, etc. The characteristics of tourism short videos content will affect users’ travel intentions (Liao et al., 2020), and the informational and emotional food tourism short videos will affect the users’ attitude (Chi et al., 2022). In other words, short videos have a very important relationship with users’ travel behavior intentions.

Short videos content marketing

Content marketing is the creation of valuable, relevant, and compelling content on its own basis, through which brand owners hope to get some positive behavioral feedback from brand customers or potential customers (Pulizzi, 2012). In the past, content marketing was mostly used by brand dealers. But now, due to the development of technology and platforms, anyone can publish content on the Internet without any investment. These forms of content known as “user-generated content” provide new opportunities for the development of content marketing (Pulizzi, 2012). Social media marketing content is usually user-generated, which has the advantages of low cost, rapid dissemination, and younger audiences (Vance et al., 2009). Currently, marketers are also trying to make shorter videos to promote their products across a variety of digital channels (Liu et al., 2018). Short video platforms (such as TikTok), as the most common social media platforms, have gradually become the focus of content marketing research and attracted the attention of many industries. In the tourism industry, content marketing activities mainly use mobile applications and virtual communities to obtain information about tourist destinations and other platforms. Recent research showed that this information can influence tourists’ final decisions (Binh Nguyen et al., 2023). Some researchers have found that this marketing method can help the hotel and the destination image to form a good reputation (Jan et al., 2023).

In the existing literature on content marketing, different researchers divide the characteristics of content marketing with the user-perceived value (Rowley, 2008; Lieb, 2011; Bui et al., 2023). Through sorting out, it can be found that informational content and entertainment content are the focus of researchers. People often pay attention to informational and entertainment content when they are in contact with marketing means. In addition, previous studies proved that tourism short videos with emotion can enhance users’ travel intention, and make people feel close to life will also have an impact on people’s behavior (Wu et al., 2023). At the same time, some researchers also found that the authenticity characteristics of the short video content have a positive impact on people’s willingness and attitude to travel (Zhu et al., 2024), indicating that whether the content presented in the short video is true will also have a certain impact on users’ behavior. This study combines the tourism short videos with content marketing. Therefore, according to the characteristics of short tourism video and the characteristics of content marketing, the characteristics of short tourism video content marketing are divided into four dimensions: informational content, entertainment content, emotional content, and authentic content.

Technology acceptance model

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). This theory is widely used, mainly concentrated in the field of information technology, which has a great role in interpreting and predicting information technology. The two main variables in the model are Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (Davis et al., 1989). Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) can predict consumer intentions for the new technology. In today’s world of various digital technologies, it seems that Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) can evolve together with these new technologies (Rodriguez-Lopez et al., 2023). When using the model, researchers will constantly enrich the external variables to expand the model, and will also put the model into different situations. In recent years, studies on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) theory have shown that researchers will expand Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) based on the topics studied (Legris et al., 2003; Al-Emran et al., 2018). Such as food delivery program services, autonomous driving, and ride-sharing services (Panagiotopoulos et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2020; Lee et al., 2022). At the same time, some researchers have introduced it into tourism research. Huang et al. (2013) expanded Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to construct a new Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for hedonic factors such as pleasure and emotional participation, exploring the impact of the entertainment nature of 3D tourism destinations on the behavior of tourists. Some researchers took network characteristics as external variables, and introduced trust and interactivity to enrich the model, so as to study the influencing factors of users when using the Airbnb shared accommodation platform. This study found that interactivity on the platform is an important factor in improving Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness, and that trust plays a central role in influencing perceived usefulness (Jung et al., 2021). Therefore, in this study, we introduce the content marketing characteristics as an external variable into Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to study the impact of the tourism short videos on the users’ behavior.

Hypotheses and theoretical models

Based on the TAM, this paper combined the characteristics of tourism short videos content marketing and constructed the influence model of tourism short videos content marketing on users’ behavior intention (Fig. 1). The model includes five core research variables: Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), marketing characteristics of tourism short videos content, Attitude toward Using (ATU), and Behavior Intention (BI).

Fig. 1
Fig. 1The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
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Conceptual Model.

Combined with previous definitions, we define Perceived Usefulness (PU) as the degree to which users can obtain effective information about travel destination selection, and the Perceived Ease of Use is defined as the difficulty of users to master tourism short videos applications (Davis et al., 1989; Mathew et al., 2020). In TAM, Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) affect the user’s attitude towards WriteOne, Perceived Usefulness (PU) affects their willingness to act (Davis et al., 1989), and believe that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of new technologies can have a positive impact on perceived usefulness. In social media marketing research, some researchers use the TAM and the T-O-E model for research, finding that 150 travel agencies’ perception of social media marketing in South Africa significantly influenced their attitudes towards using social media marketing (Matikiti et al., 2018). Mathew et al. (2020) extended TAM, adding two variables—Perceived Convenience and Perceived Enjoyment. This study confirmed that people’s Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Perceived Convenience, and Perceived Enjoyment of digital content marketing have a positive impact on their attitude towards using content marketing and then affect their willingness to act. In past studies on the TAM, the vast majority of studies have confirmed that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) has a positive impact on Perceived Usefulness (PU). Based on this, several of the hypotheses of this study were formulated as follows:

H1. PU positively affects users’ attitudes toward using tourism short videos.

H2. PEOU positively affects users’ attitudes toward using tourism short videos.

H3. PU positively affects users’ BI.

H4. PEOU positively affects users’ PU of using tourism short videos.

Combined with the previous definition of usage attitude, in this paper, we defined the usage attitude as the subjective positive or negative evaluation of users when using tourism short videos. Behavior intention refers to a certain behavior or tendency, such as the travel intention, the recommendation intention, and the intention to revisit, after knowing the content of the travel destination in the tourism short videos (Davis et al., 1989). Huang et al. 2022 added the flow theory, which found that individuals’ positive attitudes and flow status toward virtual surfing predicted the Behavioral Intention (BI) of virtual surfing. Kao et al. (2023) found that users’ attitudes toward service robots had a positive impact on their willingness to use service robots. People’s attitude toward technology is the key factor influencing behavioral intention (Bagozzi et al., 1992). When users have a positive view of tourism short videos, the likelihood of generating positive behavioral intentions increases. Based on this, we proposed the following hypothesis:

H5. Users’ ATU of tourism short videos positively affects their BI.

TAM suggested that a good external variable can have a direct impact on the user’s Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) (Davis et al., 1996). Based on the background of digital content marketing of tourism short videos, we took the dimensions of tourism short videos content marketing as an external variable in this study. The argument referred to the S-O-R theory. The theory suggests that stimuli in the environment can affect the internal state of the organism and affect its response to the environment (Kao et al., 2023). This paper regards the Informational Content (INC), Entertainment Content (ENC), Emotional Content (EMC), and Authentic Content (AC) of tourism short videos as the external stimulus, and users’ Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Attitude toward Using (ATU) of tourism short videos are regarded as internal states. The user’s Behavioral Intention (BI) acts as a behavioral response. Based on this, we proposed the following several hypotheses.

The first was the Informational Content (INC). Informational content represents the information that is helpful and resourceful (Zhao et al., 2020). Rubin (1981) observed nine types of television viewing motivation, including information motivation and entertainment motivation. It was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the subject’s motivation for TV viewing and their perception of the authenticity of the TV content, among which information viewing motivation had the greatest influence on perceived authenticity. Zhao et al. (2020) introduced the information of health short video advertisements as the leading variable into the TAM, and found that the Informational Content (INC) of health short video advertisements has an impact on users’ Perceived Usefulness (PU), and there are some mediation effects to affect the willingness to use them. Therefore, Informational Content (INC) can have an impact on user behavior.

Based on this, the following assumptions were made:

H6a. INC of tourism short videos positively affects the PU of users.

H6b. INC of tourism short videos positively affects the PEOU of users.

The second was the Entertainment Content (ENC). Entertainment Content (ENC) is a kind of content type that can bring people enjoyment, fun and other happy mood (Stollfuß, 2020). As the users of short videos get younger, many short videos are no longer boring but increasingly interesting. The short form of information communication is the favorite form of information communication for millennials. As one of them, the short video is loved by young people, and the entertainment of information is the main aspect of their concern (Nam et al., 2021). The Entertainment Content (ENC) of tourism short videos will affect the users’ EWOM of the image of the destination to a certain extent. The more entertaining the short video is, the more positive its EWOM is (Yin et al., 2023). If short videos are interesting, users will be strongly stimulated, having a positive impact on their destination decision behavior (Jiang et al., 2022). Users pay attention to the Entertainment Content (ENC) of tourism short videos.

Based on this, the following assumptions were made:

H7a. ENC of tourism short videos positively affects the PU of users.

H7b. ENC of tourism short videos positively affects the PEOU of users.

Then came the Emotional Content (EMC). Emotional Content (EMC) can evoke the user’s emotional response by telling the story, which can have positive or negative emotions (Wu et al., 2023). Positive emotions (such as happiness) can drive a positive travel experience (Ye et al., 2021). Sawaftah et al. (2021) pointed out that in digital content marketing, user-generated content is more likely to user brand defense. When social media users feel emotional links to digital content marketing, they show stronger brand defense, thus creating positive user-perceived value EWOM. Wu et al. (2023) discussed which type of tourism short videos content can stimulate potential tourists from the perspective of customer inspiration. The results showed that the emotion-oriented tourism short videos promoted the travel intention.

Based on this, the following assumptions were made:

H8a. EMC of tourism short videos positively affects the PU of users.

H8b. EMC of tourism short videos positively affects the PEOU of users.

Finally, there’s the Authentic Content (AC). The authentic content means that the content presented by the tourism short videos is consistent with the objective situation of the tourist destination (Mody et al., 2020). In the field of digital marketing and the Internet, the authenticity of network information has always been a concern of people. Some researchers have discussed the characteristics of popular tourist resorts, and they believe that the authenticity of tourists is one of the characteristics of the best tourist attractions (Lew, 2011). Some researchers also found that the authenticity of tourism short videos had an impact on the electronic word of mouth (EWOM) of the destination (Yin et al., 2023). Zhu et al. (2024) took Chengdu, China as the research site and introduced the telepresence theory to explore the relationship between authenticity, celebrity attachment, and willingness to travel in the short video experience. The results showed that the existence of authenticity promotes users’ attachment to celebrities, and then promotes their willingness to travel. This demonstrates that the authenticity of the content of short videos is very important to users’ perception.

Based on this, the following assumptions were made:

H9a. AC of tourism short videos positively affects the PU of users.

H9b. AC of tourism short videos positively affects the PEOU of users.

Research design

Questionnaire design

This paper used a questionnaire survey method to start the research. The questionnaire included basic personal information questions such as gender, age, education level, and occupation, as well as the type and source platform for respondents to watch tourism short videos. In addition to the above questions, we designed the content characteristics of tourism short videos, Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Attitude toward Using (ATU), and Behavioral Intention (BI). The Informational Content (INC), Entertainment Content (ENC), Emotional Content (EMC) and Authentic Content (AC) of tourism short video content marketing referred to Voss et al. (2003), Rose et al. (2018), Wirth et al. (2012), Kim (2012), and Nguyen (2020). The measures of Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Attitude toward Using (ATU), and Behavioral Intention (BI) referred to the scales of Mathew et al. (2020), Huang et al. (2019), and Chen et al. (2011). After screening, there were 35 items (Table 1). The questionnaire was measured on a five-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree).

Table 1 Variables and references.
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Data collection

This paper mainly explored the influence of the content marketing of tourism short videos on users’ travel intentions. The objects of the survey were mainly users who watched the tourism short videos on the platform with the short videos function. If the user has not watched a tourism short videos, they will stop answering. From November 2023 to January 2024, we distributed online and offline questionnaires and gave some material feedback to the offline respondents. In addition, this study used a random sampling method to conduct the survey. A total of 427 questionnaires were collected, and invalid questionnaires were excluded, including users who gave the incomplete responses and had not watched tourism short videos. Finally, 372 valid questionnaires were obtained, and the effective rate was 87%.

From the sample composition, the male-to-female ratio was about 2:1, 32.3% male and 67.7% female, which was similar to the distribution of male-to-female ratio in previous studies (Cao et al.,2021; Yang, 2023). The age was mainly 18-30 years old (91.7%), the education level was mainly university undergraduate (65.3%), and the occupation was mainly students (74.7%). These demonstrated that the main respondents were young. Short videos, an emerging mode of communication, were relatively popular among young people, and students had more leisure time to browse tourism short videos. From the specific types of tourism short videos watched by the respondents, the type of travel vlog was watched by the most people (48.7%), followed by the type of travel strategy, accounting for 25.5%. The largest number of users contacted tourism short videos from TikTok (42.7%). As the leader of the short video platform, TikTok has extremely rich short video types and a wide audience.

Data analysis and the results

Credit validity test and model fit test

In this paper, the main variables were all measured in the form of scales. We conducted tests to verify the quality of the data. First, we analyzed the internal consistency of each dimension by examining Cronbach’s alpha values reliability. The Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0 to 1, and the higher the value of the test result, the higher the reliability. Generally, a reliability coefficient greater than 0.7 is credible, if greater than 0.9 is very credible (Fornell et al., 1981). As shown in Table 3, the overall reliability of the questionnaire was 0.939, and the reliability of each dimension ranged between 0.752 and 0.924, all greater than 0.7, indicating that the scale of this study had good credibility.

Secondly, we constructed a CFA model to perform the confirmatory factor analysis. We discuss the test of the model fit. CMIN/DF = 1.289, RMSEA = 0.028, IFI = 0.981, TLI = 0.978, CFI = 0.981. According to the standard, all the indicators are within the range of excellence (Wheaton, 1987; Steiger et al., 1990). The standard load and average variance extraction (AVE) of the dimensions of the scale were calculated to reflect the convergence validity and combined reliability (CR) to reflect the convergence validity. According to the standard, the AVE minimum of 0.5 and the CR minimum of 0.7 indicate good convergent validity and combined reliability (Fornell et al., 1981). According to Table 2, the AVE values of each dimension were in the range of 0.506 to 0.709, and the CR values were in the range of 0.755 to 0.924, indicating that the scale had good convergent validity and combined reliability.

Table 2 Reliability and validity test.
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In this study, the differential validity of the scale was judged according to the square root of AVE. If the square root of AVE value is greater than the pairwise standardization coefficient of the variable and other values, the differential validity is good (Fornell et al., 1981). According to the analysis results of Table 3, in this differential validity test, the standardization coefficient between each dimension was less than the square root of the AVE value corresponding to the dimension. The values under each dimension were less than the square root of AVE value, indicating that each dimension has good differential validity.

Table 3 Discriminant validity.
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Results of the structural model

In this paper, AMOS 24.0 was used to establish the structural equation model (SEM) to test whether the assumed path was valid, and the approved results were used to sort out the path test table (Table 4).

Table 4 Path coefficient and hypothesis testing.
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(1) PU, PEOU, ATU, and BI

As shown in Table 4, PU and PEOU of tourism short videos had a significant positive influence on their ATU. With the standardization coefficient β = 0.244, P < 0.001 and β = 0.296, P < 0.001, H1 and H2 were proved. PEOU had a significant positive effect on PU, where the standardization coefficient β = 0.180, P < 0.01, supporting H4. PU of tourism short videos had a significant positive impact on BI; its standardized path coefficient was β = 0.371, P < 0.001, supporting H3. Users’ ATU positively influenced their BI, with a standardized path coefficient of β = 0.297 and P < 0.001, supporting H5.

(2) External factor, PU and PEOU

This paper discusses four external variables, including Informational content, entertainment content, emotional content, and authentic content. According to Table 4, INC had significant positive effects on PU and PEOU, with standardized path coefficient β = 0.129, P < 0.05, β = 0.268, P < 0.001, supporting H6a and H6b. ENC had a significant positive impact on PU and PEOU, with a standardized path coefficient of β = 0.154, P < 0.001, β = 0.173, and P < 0.001, supporting H7a and H7b. EMC had significant positive effects on PU and PEOU, with a standardized path coefficient β = 0.190, P < 0.001, β = 0.148, P < 0.01, supporting H8a and H8b. AC had significant positive effects on PU and PEOU, with a standardized path coefficient β = 0.369, P < 0.001, β = 0.148, P < 0.05, supporting H9a and H9b.

Discussion

Integration of multi-dimensional content marketing characteristics

This study integrated four content marketing characteristics—informational (INC), entertainment (ENC), emotional (EMC), and authentic (AC)—into a unified framework to systematically explore their impact on users’ travel behavioral intentions. Traditional content marketing studies predominantly emphasized informational and entertainment aspects (Bubphapant & Brandao, 2024; Nam et al., 2021; Rowley, 2008), while tourism short videos were found to require a balance between emotional resonance and informational credibility (Wu et al., 2023). Recent studies emphasized the necessity of multidimensional content strategies to engage modern audiences, particularly in fragmented media environments (Zhou et al., 2023; Yin et al., 2023). For instance, Zhou et al. (2023) highlighted that informational content (e.g., practical travel tips) and emotional narratives (e.g., storytelling) synergistically enhanced user engagement on platforms like TikTok. Our findings extended this by demonstrating that all four dimensions collectively influenced users’ perceived usefulness (PU) and ease of use (PEOU).

Specifically, INC provided practical and resourceful information, which enhanced users’ perceptions of the videos’ usefulness and ease of use, as demonstrated by Zhao et al. (2020). ENC delivered information through engaging and relaxed formats, fostering user immersion and emotional proximity to travel destinations, a finding supported by Wu et al. (2023) and Larsen et al. (2019). However, Bubphapant and Brandao (2024) cautioned that ENC might be perceived as purely recreational, potentially lacking actionable utility for specific travel-related decisions. EMC elicited affective responses and shaped positive attitudes, aligning with Blanco-Moreno et al.’s (2024) insights; however, the same study noted that deliberately crafted emotional narratives might fail to resonate universally due to variations in users’ personal experiences. AC, often disseminated by authoritative sources, strengthened trust and positively influenced users’ perceptions, consistent with Wang et al. (2022) and Wu and Lai’s (2024) emphasis on authenticity as a driver of credibility in digital tourism contexts.

By analyzing these four dimensions, this research provided a holistic model capturing the multifaceted nature of tourism short videos. The empirical validation of their positive impacts on PU and PEOU underscored their collective role in shaping user perceptions. These findings aligned with recent calls for multidimensional approaches in content marketing research (Chen et al., 2024; Bui et al., 2023) and bridged gaps in tourism studies, which had previously overlooked the interplay of these characteristics (Bubphapant & Brandao, 2024; Wu et al., 2023). These insights not only enriched the dimensional classification of content marketing but also offered theoretical guidance for tourism destinations to achieve differentiated marketing through short video content design.

Extension of the technology acceptance model

By introducing content marketing characteristics as external variables into TAM, this study expanded traditional technology acceptance theories that focus narrowly on technical functionalities (Davis et al., 1989), highlighting the critical role of content quality in user acceptance. Traditional TAM frameworks primarily emphasized technological features (e.g., ease of use) but neglected content-driven stimuli (Mathew et al., 2020; Davis et al., 1989). Prior TAM extensions had emphasized technical convenience (e.g., perceived convenience) or emotional experiences (e.g., perceived enjoyment) (Li et al., 2024; Huang et al., 2022). Recent adaptations of TAM in tourism contexts similarly stressed external variables like telepresence and interactivity (Li et al., 2024; Rodríguez-López et al., 2023). Our model advanced this by positioning content marketing dimensions as external stimuli that significantly enhanced PU and PEOU, thereby enriching TAM’s predictive power. This extension aligned with efforts to adapt TAM to emerging digital platforms, such as live streaming (Xu et al., 2023), virtual reality (Huang et al., 2022), and the metaverse (Liu & Park, 2024).

Moreover, the integration of content marketing into TAM addressed a critical gap identified by Shahab et al. (2021), who advocated for hybrid models merging consumer psychology with technology adoption theories. This expansion aligned with the S-O-R theory (Kao et al., 2023), positioning content as a “stimulus” variable and strengthening TAM’s explanatory power in digital content marketing. The results also provided a novel contextual application of TAM for short video platforms, emphasizing that technology acceptance relied not only on functional design but also on content quality to optimize user experience.

Enhanced understanding of tourism short videos

This study significantly advanced the theoretical understanding of tourism short videos by positioning them as dynamic, multi-sensory tools. Unlike prior research that predominantly framed short videos as passive information carriers (Cao et al., 2021), our findings emphasized their capacity to evoke emotional engagement and immersive experiences, thereby transforming user attitudes. This research deepened scholarly understanding of the “content-perception-behavior” pathway in tourism short videos, offering fresh perspectives on user decision-making in fragmented communication scenarios (Zhou et al., 2023).

Earlier studies often treated tourism short videos as homogeneous or focused on isolated aspects like destination image (Cao et al., 2021) or emotional appeal (Wu et al., 2023). By contrast, this study delineated how diverse content types influenced users’ perceptions. The results revealed that users’ holistic evaluation of short videos depended on both functional (e.g., informational utility) and experiential (e.g., emotional engagement) factors, echoing advancements in experiential marketing (Chen et al., 2024; Gan et al., 2023).

Furthermore, existing studies on tourism short videos frequently examined single content types (e.g., emotion-oriented or information-oriented videos) (Wu et al., 2023; Liao et al., 2020), lacking comprehensive analyses of multidimensional content. This study constructed an integrated framework encompassing informational, entertainment, emotional, and authentic dimensions and uncovered the differential mechanisms through which these characteristics influenced user cognition and behavior. Additionally, the research echoed the “content is king” trend in digital tourism marketing (Bui et al., 2023), advocating for a balance between functional and emotional value in short videos. These findings laid a foundation for interdisciplinary theoretical integration in future studies.

Particular emphasis on authentic content in tourism short videos

This study empirically validated the unique role of authentic content (AC) in tourism short videos, addressing the under-researched area of information authenticity in existing literature. While authenticity has been widely discussed in traditional tourism experience studies (Mody et al., 2020; Lew, 2011) and recognized as a driver of tourist satisfaction (Engeset et al., 2014), limited research has examined its role in digital content. This research validated AC as a distinct dimension that enhanced PU and PEOU, corroborating Zhu et al. (2024) and Wu et al. (2023), who linked authenticity in short videos to telepresence, celebrity attachment, and awe-driven travel intentions. By demonstrating that authenticity fostered users’ PU and PEOU, this study bridged Lew’s (2011) conceptualization of experiential authenticity with modern digital contexts.

This paper extended the application boundaries of “authenticity” theory from offline experiences to digital media (Yin et al., 2023; Zhu et al., 2024) and provided a theoretical foundation for future research on balancing authenticity and artistic expression through technological means. By integrating AC into TAM, this research not only enriched content marketing theory but also provided actionable insights for destinations to leverage authenticity as a competitive advantage.

Practical implications

Our findings have several practical implications for destination marketing. First, informational content should be clear, obvious, and even highlighted and emphasized. Destination managers should make efforts to provide extensive, useful, and valuable informational content. Second, Entertainment content should highlight the features, let users immersed in the tourism short videos content. Through the form of entertainment to let users understand the travel information. Third, make efforts to generate high-quality emotional content. Sincere emotional content is essential for arousing people’s emotional resonance, improving users’ perceptions of the video content, and thus increasing the publicity effect of short videos. Fourth, pay attention to the impact of authentic content. Destination managers can improve users’ perceptions of authenticity in various ways, including using authoritative signs and explaining the source of the video.

Conclusion

In light of the current popularity of tourism short videos, this paper used an extended TAM to analyze the effects of tourism short videos. Specifically, we took content marketing as the external variable of the extended TAM. We innovatively revealed the positive relationship between the tourism short video content and users’ perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Our findings can shed light on future tourism research and practice.

Several limitations of the current study need to be addressed. We only tested informational, entertainment, emotional, and authentic content as the external variables. There may be other effective external variables, future research can explore and compare their effects. We only used the questionnaire survey as our method. Future studies can use behavioral experiments and other methods.