Herding the Hordes: Using Location-Based Services and Mobile Messaging to Affect Visitor Behavior

Abstract

This study investigates modes of moving visitors in a tourist location using a location-based service. Two field experiments were conducted at a zoo using real visitors as participants and behavior-based dependent variables. Experiment 1 included 2,618 visitors and investigated whether the amount of rewards, in the form of free spins on a wheel of fortune, would affect the choice to move to this wheel and claim the offered rewards. The choice of using this offer was used as a dependent variable. Experiment 2 included 970 visitors and investigated whether labelling participants with a fitting trait led them to move to a certain location. Geographical data using iBeacon logging was used as the dependent variable. Using chi-square tests for independence, we causally show that both the reward and the label had a positive and significant effect on moving the visitors to the targeted location.