Measuring the Impact of Social Media Boycotts on Tourist Arrivals: Evidence from the British Museum

The main objective of this study is to investigate whether social media boycotts have a negative impact on tourist arrivals. We analyzed 17,905 negatively valenced tweets pertaining to the British Museum from 2014 to 2019, which were linked to two separate boycotting campaigns. Employing the local projection method, we assessed the influence of these Twitter boycotts on the British Museum's tourist arrival numbers. Our results suggest that social media boycotts have a modest impact on declining tourist figures, with varying effects observed across campaigns with different themes. Notably, the “Drop BP” boycott demonstrated a statistically significant, albeit mild, correlation between tweet volume and tourist arrivals. This research enhances the understanding of tourism boycotts by providing empirical evidence of social media boycotts’ effects on tourist numbers. We also offer insights for attraction managers on managing and mitigating boycotts.