Cuadernos de Turismo, 31, (2013), 335-338 Cuadernos de Turismo, nº 31, (2013); pp. 335-338 Universidad de Murcia ISSN: 1139-7861 ANTECENTS OF THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY TOURISTS: MOTIVATION, OPPORTUNITY, AND ABILITY Desiderio Gutiérrez Taño Universidad de La Laguna Jacques Bulchand Gidumal Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Ricardo J. Díaz Armas Eduardo Parra López Universidad de La Laguna dgtano@ull.es,jbulchand@dede.ulpgc.es, rjdiaz@ull.es, eparra@ull.es It is of vital importance that tourism organization managers and destination policy makers understand the antecedents of the tourists’ use and adoption of social media before, during and after their trips due to the impact of these collaborative behaviors on tourists’ decisions about the choice of all the elements of the trip (destination, accommodation, activities, restaurants, …). This work addresses the use of social media to organize and take vacation trips from an overall perspective and is not restricted to the use of a specific tool or to one community. That use is related not only to the different phases of the trip (before, during and after) but also to the different levels of use (consulting and/or contributing content). Thus, this study has three objectives: to adapt the theoretical MOA model to the use of social media on vacation trips that contemplates, in a generalized fashion, the set of these tools; to test and refine the proposed theoretical model by means of Structural Equations, using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique; and to evaluate the strength and direction of the influence of those factors on their use. The hypotheses of the work are the following: Hypothesis 1. There is a positive relationship between the motivation and the intentions of using social media in organizing and taking vacation trips. Hypothesis 2a. There is a positive relationship between the perceived functional benefits and the intentions of social media in organizing and taking vacation trips Hypothesis 2b.There is a positive relationship between the perceived social benefits and the intentions of social media in organizing and taking vacation trips Hypothesis 2a.There is a positive relationship between the perceived hedonic benefits and the intentions of social media in organizing and taking vacation trips