Impact of Smart Tourism Technology Attributes on Perceived Usefulness, Service Experience Evaluation, and Business Performance: A Perspective of Hotel Employees

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hotel employees play an important role in enhancing guests’ service experience and business performance through smart tourism technology (STT) attributes. This study explores the relationships among STT attributes (informativeness, accessibility, interactivity, personalization, and function), perceived usefulness, service experience evaluation, and business performance from hotel employees’ perspectives through an empirical study of the hotel industry in Hong Kong. The purposes of this study are to 1) explore the current SST applications in hotel organizations, 2) assess the effects of SST attributes on perceived usefulness, service experience evaluation, and business performance, and 3) assess the mediating effect of perceived usefulness on the relationships between STT attributes and service experience evaluation. From the responses of the 274 hotel employees in Hong Kong, the results indicated a positive effect of personalization and function attributes on perceived usefulness, which in turn influenced service experience evaluation and business performance. Furthermore, perceived usefulness was found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between personalization and service experience evaluation and between function and service experience evaluation. This study contributes to the STT attributes and TAM model’s theoretical development and managerial implications for hotel organizations.