@DHAKA UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT
Volume 16, No. 1, January 2024 – December 2025
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.57240/DUJM.V16N1A4
PP. 93-114, ISSN: 2221-2523
Influencing the Travel Behaviour via Sharing the Travel
Experiences: A Thematic Analysis
Nusrat Jahan, PhD1
Mahfuza Sultana Fariha2
Received on 29th Jan 2025, Accepted on 6th Oct 2025, Published on Abstract: Travel experiences are mostly individual yet frequently shared shaping perceptions of tourist destinations and influencing potential travelers. In the digital era, social media has become a crucial platform for promoting tourist destinations and attracting potential visitors. This study investigates the phenomenon of sharing experiential travel narratives on social media platformsas part of tourism communication, through Facebook and Instagram, and examines the motivations behind tourists’ decisions to share their experiences. Adopting a thematic-based qualitative research design, the study engaged 20 participants from diverse age groups in semi-structured interviews, selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The findings reveal that Bangladeshi tourists predominantly highlight local cuisine, scenic beauty, atmosphere, travel advice, and peer communication when selecting their next destination to share online. This research underscores the importance of Word of-Mouth (WOM) and electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) processes in enabling experiential travel content. Furthermore, the study offers valuable insights for developing targeted marketing strategies and destination branding tools specifically tailored to millennials. By shedding light on the travel preferences of Bangladeshi millennials, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the travel decision-making processes within this demographic. Lastly, the study enriches the literature on Tourism Experiences (TE) by highlighting the role of social media WOM in developing nations, with millennials playing a crucial role in shaping the demographic landscape.
Keywords: Tourists’ Experience, Bangladesh, Word-of-mouth, Thematic analysis
1Associate Professor, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business
Studies, University of Dhaka
2Lecturer, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Business Studies, Pabna
University of Science and Technology