Examining gamification affordances for intrinsic needs of satisfaction in tourist engagement activities on digital platforms in Hong Kong

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The effectiveness of gamification elements has been widely examined in different aspects over the past decade. However, recent research showed that not all gamification elements can effectively engage users or consumers in different domains including video games and online shopping activities. To examine these inconsistent results, affordance theory was expanded to propose a new affordance design model in the gamification context. This study included a questionnaire survey of 303 Hong Kong residents, aged 18- 60 years old. SmartPLS4.0 structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed. The findings indicated that the proposed gamification affordances were largely significant for consumers’ psychological satisfaction needs, except for hedonic-based features. The results also demonstrated that gamification serves as a rewarding tool for consumers to foster social connections and achieve self-fulfillment. This highlights the utilitarian value within the relationship between consumers and activities in tourism. The objective of this research was to identify which gamification affordances most effectively fulfilled consumers’ psychological need of satisfaction by incorporating self-determination theory. This study contributed using a new affordance model to understand consumer actions in the knowledge construction of gamification effectiveness, especially in the tourist markets and its impact on consumers’ psychological satisfaction needs. The effectiveness of gamification of reward-based affordances present that the this research provide valuable insights that can be used by marketers to develop effective online marketing strategies specifically for online tourism activities in Hong Kong.