Social media usage behaviours of religious tourists: The cases of the Vatican, Mecca, and Jerusalem

The study examines social media (SM) usage preferences of religious tourists, their motivations for sharing travel experiences on SM, and the motivational differences by demographics and SM usage characteristics. Employing three field studies in the Vatican, Mecca, and Jerusalem, we show that instant messaging applications were the most popular SM platforms for all religious groups. In addition, motivation for experience sharing on SM differed by age, visit frequency to destination, religiosity level, and SM usage experience. Although there were significant differences between the groups in terms of using SM to share their travel experience, 'maintaining social connections & friendships' was identified as the most important motive for all.