Effects of Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness as Mediators of the Relationship between Individual Culture and Intention to Use Digital Tourism Applications and Services

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the individual cultural characteristics of consumers and their intention to use digital services and applications in the tourism sector, and whether Perceived Benefit and Perceived Ease of Use, which are the elements of technology acceptance, have a mediating effect in this relationship. For this purpose, the data collected from 303 participants were analyzed by Structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The findings indicate that "perceived ease of use" has a partial mediator effect in the relationship between "Intention to use digital tourism applications and services" and the "uncertainty avoidance" sub-dimension of individual culture, and a full mediator effect in the relationship between "collectivism" and "long-term orientation" sub-dimensions. In addition, it was concluded that the “perceived usefulness” has a partial mediator effect in the relationship between the “intention to use digital tourism applications and services” and “collectivism”, one of the sub-dimensions of individual culture, and has a full mediator effect in the relations of the sub-dimensions of “uncertainty avoidance” and “long-term orientation”. With the difference tests applied to the demographic data of the participants, the effects of demographic characteristics were examined and interpreted.