YouTube channels influence on destination visit intentions An empirical analysis on the base of information adoption model Neelika Arora Department of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Organizational Behavior (OB), Central University of Jammu, Jammu, India, and Suman Lata Department of Tourism and Travel Management, Central University of Jammu, Jammu, India Abstract Purpose – With the usage of social media and Web 2. 0, YouTube channels currently play a pivotal role in supporting a traveler’s destination visit. Travelers create their YouTube channels and share their past experiences in the form of videos, which helps other potential travelers to support their destination visit. The purpose of this paper is to understand how travelers adopt information through YouTube channels and how it influences the traveler’s intention to visit a destination. Design/methodology/approach – A research model was constructed and empirically tested by using a sample of 486 respondents who watch YouTube channels before visiting a destination. Further, the hypotheses of this study were validated with the help of structural equation modeling using partial least squares. The respondents in this study were from Delhi. Findings – This paper found comprehensiveness, relevance, timeliness, source expertise and attitude as the most significant predictors of a traveler’s destination visit intention through YouTube channel adoption. Further, source trustworthiness and accuracy were not found to be statistically significant. Research limitations/Implications – The findings of this paper were based on data taken from the local respondents in Delhi. Further, it analyzed the influence of only seven dimensions on destination visit intention, which could have excluded some important factors that influence tourists’ destination visit intention. Practical implications – This paper has provided implications for YouTube vloggers and tourists. The result proves that while making decisions regarding destination visit, tourists thinks critically and scrutinize the content of YouTube channels prior to deciding a destination. So, vloggers should provide relevant, comprehensive and accurate destination information through their videos to tourists. Originality – To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first in the Indian context to examine the adoption of YouTube channels before visiting destinations through information adoption models with additional constructs. Keywords Information adoption model, Consumer intention, Destination visit, User-generated content, YouTube channels Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Online videos are proving to be a smart and most dominating channel regarding information and education, but it has revealed an impeculiar growth in the field of tourism. With the growth of digital media, tourists gradually seek and share their destination-related Information adoption model 23 Received 8 September 2019 Revised 2 January 2020 9 January 2020 23 January 2020 1 February 2020 Accepted 2 February 2020 Journal of Indian Business Research Vol. 12 No. 1, 2020 pp. 23-42 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1755-4195 DOI 10.1108/JIBR-09-2019-0269 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1755-4195.htm