SOCIAL MEDIA AND USER‑GENERATED CONTENT AS FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMERS’ TOURIST DECISIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN

S.N. Skakova, М. Т. Давлетова, Валентина Герасименко

2026

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DOI 10.32014/2026.2518-1467.1307
Data confidence 70 medium
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Abstract

The development of social media is changing the architecture of information search and decision‑making in the tourism market, since a significant portion of information about destinations is no longer generated solely by tourism organisations and official promotion channels, but also by consumers themselves through photos, video materials, reviews, comments, ratings, and recommendations. The study aims to identify the role of social media and user‑generated content in shaping consumers’ tourism choices in Kazakhstan and to substantiate the mechanism by which digital information influences perceptions of a tourist destination and the intention to travel. The study's methodological basis includes the theory of information adoption, the concept of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), the theory of trust in the source of information, and the Stimulus– Organism–Response approach. The empirical part is based on official statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, data on the development of domestic tourism and e‑commerce, and international digital statistics for 2021–2025. We applied dynamic, comparative, and structural analysis, compared digital and tourism indicators, and used conceptual modelling. By 2025, Kazakhstan had developed a large‑scale digital audience: the number of Internet users reached 19.2 million, and the number of social media user identifiers reached 15.7 million. At the same time, the number of resident visitors served by accommodation facilities continued to grow, and the volume of e‑commerce services increased from 349.9 billion tenge in 2021 to 2,477.3 billion tenge in 2025. User-generated content serves several functions in the tourist choice process: informational, reputational, risk-reducing, visual-emotional, and social confirmation. The author developed a model of tourist choice formation in which the characteristics of user‑generated content influence trust and the image of the destination, then affect perceived value and risk, and ultimately influence the intention to visit the destination and tourist choice. The scientific novelty lies in distinguishing the direct informational impact of social media from the indirect impact through trust, destination image, and eWOM, as applied to the digital consumer environment in Kazakhstan.