From interaction to relationship: Rethinking parasocial phenomena in travel live streaming

Travel live streaming (TLS) has become prolific on many social media platforms, yet the topic has received limited academic attention. This paper uses an affordance lens to explore travel live streamers and viewers parasocial interactions (PSI) and relationships (PSR). Using a more-than-human netnography method, 42 travel live streams, 36,800 real-time comments, and 36 interviews from travel live streamers were collected through three phases (pre, during and post live streaming). The findings show that TLS affordances provide opportunities to foster PSI through psychological, social, and technological dimensions, and thus develop parasocial acquaintances and conflicts. This study contributes to parasocial investigation and affordance literature by illustrating the relationship between technology affordance and participants’ behaviours in the TLS. It also uses a novel methodological approach known as key frame analysis to capture and analyse live streamed video footage. Practical implications are discussed for live streamers, destinations, and platforms.