The Center for Social Data Analytics Speaker Series Presents: Yaqi Gong (RPTM)

Title:  "The “hidden risk” of social media to tourists’ information diversity and safety"

Abstract: Modern travel experiences are increasingly mediated by social media. While social media provides new opportunities for engagement among various stakeholders and value creation, it also reshapes tourists’ experiences, well-being, and risks in ways that are not yet fully understood. My research explored two unintended consequences or “hidden risks” of social media in tourism, including informational risk and safety concerns. Using a mixture of big data analytics, between-subjects experiments, and qualitative methods, my research projects look into how social media could create travel information echo chambers by limiting tourists’ exposure to diverse travel information, and how social media challenges tourists’ safety by attenuating risk narratives in unofficial and unmaintained sites and “encouraging” risky photo-taking in nature-based tourism destinations.

Bio: Yaqi Gong is a Ph.D. Candidate in the dual-title program in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management and Social Data Analytics at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research examines the psychological, social, and managerial implications of digital technologies and visual media in tourism and hospitality. Her dissertation studies the psychological mechanisms and communication patterns underlying risk-taking travel behaviors associated with social media–induced tourism. She will join the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School as an Assistant Professor in August 2026.