Information search by smartphone and tourists’ spatial behavior

Abstract

This study explores if tourists’ information search via smartphone can be related to unplanned destination visits during a trip. An online survey was conducted by using email addresses obtained from respondents who had visited South Carolina coastal sites. Through a series of non-parametric tests, this study revealed that the ratio of unplanned destination visits was different between smartphone users and non-users. It also found differences in the ratio of unplanned destinations visited between tourism information searchers and non-searchers, but attraction information was the only significant variable. Non-smartphone users tended to be more spontaneous and flexible than the smartphone use group in trip planning. Since non-smartphone users might have few alternative plans for immediately coping with unexpected or constrained situations, they might skip planned destinations and/or move on to unplanned destinations where they would assume that they could get the experiences/activities that they expected. As such, the level of decision-making flexibility of non-smartphone users during a trip could become higher than smartphone users. This study discusses the implications of smartphone use on tourists’ spatial behavior (i.e., unplanned destination visits) and decision making in the conclusion.