The effect of hotel livestreaming on viewers’ purchase intention: Exploring the role of parasocial interaction and emotional engagement

Livestreaming is an important marketing channel that could create viewers’ emotional engagement with hotels and hence boost purchase. Parasocial interaction theory explains imagined social relationships and interactions with people who are distant from us and who do not reciprocate individual communication or interest. The introduction of parasocial interaction and purchase intention into the context of livestreaming enriches the literature on this important global phenomenon. Drawing from similarity attraction theory and parasocial interaction theory, the antecedents and purchase intention of viewers who interacted with the hosts of livestreaming programmes run by hotels were examined. Data from a survey of 348 individuals who had watched hotel livestreaming programmes were analysed using PLS-SEM. A model to explain the effects of hotel livestreaming on viewers’ purchase intentions was proposed and tested. The findings indicated that the viewers’ self-congruence and value congruence with the hosts of livestreaming programmes enhanced their parasocial interaction, which in turn strengthened their emotional engagement and purchase intention. A viewer's emotional engagement with a livestreaming programme was found to mediate the effect of their parasocial interaction and as a result influence on their purchase intention. Moreover, findings suggest that hotels need to create opportunities for livestreaming through events and should amplify user-generated content communications through livestreaming to support emotional engagement and boost bookings.