Supplementary Material 2 - Analysis

Social media is reshaping the future of tourism, and travel brands are shifting budgets toward travel influencers, many of whom happen to use surprise posts. However, how travel influencers deploy surprise in practice is varied and academically not understood. A novel methodology is utilised, incorporating human analysis for inter-coding travel influencers’ social media posts, and corroborated by artificial intelligence (ChatGPT). Our analysis validates that travel influencers’ surprise posts significantly differ from non-surprise posts. Furthermore, a typology of surprise strategies in travel influencers’ social media posts is developed that articulates how surprise is constructed and used in travel influencer marketing.