Pre-trip tourism information search by smartphones and use of alternative information channels: A conceptual model

Chaang-Iuan Ho,Yu-Lan Yuan,Ming-Chih Chen,Yu-Chun Lin,Claudia Alvares

doi:10.1080/23311886.2015.1136100

Abstract

AbstractThis study developed a comprehensive model of how smartphone users search for pre-trip tourism information. Important dimensions and relationships in tourism information search (TIS) behavior were studied in 21 subjects. The data collection process included semi-structured in-depth interviewing data and field observation data. The analysis revealed 10 activities characteristic of TIS behavior: internal searches, mobile searches, saving information in the smartphones, preliminary collaborative TIS, barriers to TIS, bringing mobile search to an end, summarizing information, PC Internet search, advanced collaborative TIS, and searches via editorial communications. Such data collection was not performed in isolation. Further, 20 propositions have been developed for future testing. The results suggest that pre-trip TIS appears to consist in a diversity of search patterns with the usage of multiple information sources; in addition, it is no longer individual but collaborative behavior in the context of ...

Highlights

For many people, the use of smartphones has changed the approach to tourism information search (TIS) and travel planning (Wang, Xiang, & Fesenmaier, 2014a)
We develop a comprehensive model of how smartphone users use mobile search and a combination of information sources for pre-trip tourism information to make travel arrangements
This study develops a conceptual model of how smartphone users engage in pre-trip TIS activities

Summary

Introduction

The use of smartphones has changed the approach to tourism information search (TIS) and travel planning (Wang, Xiang, & Fesenmaier, 2014a). Web search is a complex phenomenon (Ho, Lin, & Chen, 2012; Pan & Fesenmaier, 2006), and the information need is dynamic. Use of the Web expands the needs of smartphone users and increases the way to retrieve tourism information. Seeking recourse in a smartphone to gather, assimilate, and use information involves increasingly complex means. The Web 2.0 medium, social networking sites (SNS), facilitates the use of TIS to the extent that the searches involve social and collaborative aspects rather than the interactions of a single Web user with an information environment (Di Pietro, Di Virgilio, & Pantano, 2012; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Mobile search may lead its users to different behavioral patterns with regard to how they seek information (Gómez-Barroso, Bacigalupo, Nikolov, Compañó, & Feijóo, 2012)

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