Social media effects on diaspora tourism : A case study on second generation of Iranian immigrants in Stockholm

Sammanfattning: The impact of social media in tourism industry is significant. This study examines the role, impact, and relationship of social media platforms among second generation Iranian Swedish in Stockholm as a segment of tourism market when travelling to Iran. In addition, the purpose of this study is to explore if social media has a motivational role for diaspora tourism on second generation of immigrants’ trip to their origin country. The study uses content analysis and online questionnaire to collect data of 22 second generation Iranian diaspora who have traveled to Iran at least once during their lifetime. Three themes were identified from the collected qualitative answers based on the objectives of the research: Iranian diaspora motivations to visit homeland, feelings, and traveler experience by social media. Findings demonstrate the social media platforms are working as a motivation-pull factor influencing second generation immigrants to visit Iran, in much the same as other pull factors do. Also, the results show the User Generated Contents (UGC) such as travelers generated reliable travel information and introduction of new destinations can persuade second generation of diaspora immigrants to go back to their origin country for another visit. Finally, the findings of this research have revealed that two outcomes of trip to Iran by second generation of Iranian immigrants are Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) and visiting tourism attractions. Such outcomes can highly affect the diaspora members’ decisions in planning their travel to their origin country.