Domestic tourism is essential to boost the local economies, cultural identity, and the tourism industry in China. Due to the fast development of social media, including Xiaohongshu and Douyin, which play the role of creating and consuming tourism content, the process of tourism perception is significantly altered and also affects the traveler decision-making process. This research attempts to determine the impact of these sites on domestic tourist experience and how they affect the behavioral intentions of Chinese tourists. The study used a quantitative research method, where a total of 416 domestic tourists were selected through stratified random sampling as the study sample. Questionnaires were posted in pertinent community groups on the internet to help capture the perceptions and behavioral patterns. The results show the existence of four perception factors, namely usefulness, interactivity, credibility, and pleasure, which have a significant influence on behavior, attitude, and intentions. Of these, interactivity turned out to be the most significant, and perceived usefulness and credibility followed "hard on its heels" as they are the immediate antecedents of behavioral intentions. Indirect influences on intentions, however, are felt through perceived pleasure; the attitudes affect intentions. The subjective norms also showed a direct substantial influence on the intentions, but did not have any effect on the connection between attitudes and intentions. The findings depict the importance of interaction, social media, credibility, and usefulness in encouraging tourism marketing. The study will also be valuable to the tourism literature because it will combine perception-based constructs with behavioural theories and provide an understanding of the psychological processes involved in domestic travel decision-making in China. Practical implications also reveal the need to ensure tourism marketers make ample use of interactive features, ingredients, credible content, and platform-specific strategies to improve engagement and propagate domestic tourism growth.