Social networking is becoming a popular tool these days, especially in the case of the tourism industry. There has been a noticeable increase in the use of social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, because of the dynamic nature of technology. Numerous users are treating it to create blogs on these platforms and share photos while travelling. This becomes a medium of interaction with other users by sharing particulars of their interests and activities. From the perspective of the tourism industry, the stakeholders involved namely hoteliers, travel agents, and government are cherry-picking social media to connect with their guests and customers. The influence and opinion of people is of high significance, in case of travel, purchase, usage of service. Mammoth's dependency on social media for every prominent decision relating to travel has made social media and social networking sites an integral part of life.

Purpose: The current study aims to analyse the impact of social media on the travel decisions made by Generation Z. The current study attempts to investigate the effect of social media in shaping the perception of prospective travellers for the desired travel destinations. The Technology Acceptance Model has been used in the current study to develop a conceptual framework that will help understand the impact of social media on the travel decisions of the younger generation. The current study also aims to assess the role of age as a moderating factor for the formation of destination images among Generation Z.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A sample size of 420 respondents was used to meet the objective of examining the impact of social media on the creation of a sustainable destination image in a traveller’s mind. To examine the relationship between the intention to use social media and destination image, a conceptual model has been framed with the help of the Technology Acceptance Model.  The results of this study will be extremely important to online tourism marketers, as this will give them a better understanding of how the younger generation uses social networking sites. Also, the way social networking sites aid prospective travellers in the formation of a virtual destination impression. This will enable marketers to draft new or fine-tune their existing online marketing strategies.

Findings: The findings do not rely on any presumptions while confirming the theoretical model's robustness and strength. The main findings highlight that travellers’ information sources including social media, have an impact on their motives for exploring a place. The travellers’ motives have an impact on their cognitive image and travellers’ motivations have an impact on their affective image.

Originality/ Value: This research encompasses various variables namely Perceived Costs, Perceived Enjoyment, and Perceived Ease of Use which also examine their impact on the intention to use social media for travel purposes. This study also envisages social networking sites as a source of information and takes into account the direct and moderating linkages between numerous variables namely motivations, information sources, and image dimensions.