Leveraging AI In Social Media Marketing For Tourism Business: Shaping Consumer Perception And Purchase Intention

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits across various sectors including business. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can leverage Generative AI, which is mostly free, to optimize marketing campaigns and boost sales. Kawan Cerita Outdoor, an SME specializing in hiking tours and equipment rental, has implemented AI for its content planning and design on social media Instagram. This study investigates the impact of AI-driven marketing, focusing on content creation, on consumers’ perception of service quality and its subsequent influence on purchase intention. A quantitative approach was employed, gathering data from 170 respondents drawn from Kawan Cerita Outdoor’s Instagram audience via an online questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) version 3.0. The findings indicate that AI-driven marketing has a significant impact on perceived service quality, which fully mediates the relationship between AI-driven marketing and purchase intention. However, AI-driven marketing does not directly affect purchase intention. There are some limitations of the study such as the limited range of variables investigated and the potential for sampling bias associated with the online survey approach. Despite these limitations, this research provides valuable strategies for SMEs to effectively integrate basic AI into their social media marketing, enhancing consumer perception and ultimately increasing purchase intention.