Can Twitter data with positive or negative content affect individual emotions related to travel & tourism decisions? A study pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic

Social media significantly influences travel and tourism decisions by showcasing destinations, sharing user experiences, and influencing recommendations, ultimately shaping individuals' choices and preferences. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has influenced people's travel decisions by providing real-time updates, safety guidelines, and virtual experiences, leading to changes in travel plans and preferences. However, little attention has been paid to the effect of social media on travel and tourism-related decisions. Therefore, this paper recognizes the importance of social media and uses sentiment analysis to understand the perceptions about traveling and tourism during the pandemic. We also try to find if the effect of public tweets from social media influencers differs from ordinary people. The study uses public tweets over a one-year pandemic period, assessed by splitting the dataset into two parts, namely influencer tweets and ordinary tweets, based on the number of followers. The keywords were extracted and exposed to different groups randomly to understand the effect of the Twitter. We observe that negatively worded tweets amplified negative emotions, and positive ones increased positive emotions and impacted peoples' travel-related decisions. Furthermore, it was ascertained that exposure to varied tweets related to pandemics significantly affects people's emotions in different groups.