Travelers' Intent to Use Mobile Technologies as a Function of Effort and Performance Expectancy

Abstract

Due to the nature of the tourism product (inherently experiential, intangible, and heterogeneous) and the substantial geographical distances, trial prior to the purchase decision is almost impossible. These kinds of distances could be overcome by information about the product, which is available in advance and can be gathered by the consumer. The upsurge of mobile technology is providing great flexibility for the tourism industry and travelers who have hierarchical needs for information beyond the extent or extension of alternative user-centered information channels and other support systems on the road. Current research of the use of mobile technology in tourism has focused on design and technological issues of mobile guides. Little research has been conducted to understand travelers' attitude and use patterns. This research aims to apply the key concepts of technology acceptance model (TAM) to understand how user experience, performance, and effort expectation interplay with user intention. Using structural equation modeling on online survey data, six hypotheses which describe the relationships between the variables of the model were tested. The results indicated that the proposed model could well predict the tourists' intentions toward mobile device usage for their next trip. travelers' intentions to use mobile devices primarily depended on performance expectancy rather than effort expectancy. Previous information and communication technologies (ICT) usage and trip experience were positively related to the performance expectancy and effort expectancy, respectively. The indirect effects of previous ICT usage and previous trip experience on behavioral intention were further identified.