| Author: | Zhang, Xin |
| Title: | Intention to adopt mobile booking technologies : senior Chinese tourist’s perspective |
| Advisors: | Au, Norman (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Older people -- Travel -- China Tourism -- Computer network resources Consumers -- Attitudes Technology and older people Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xvii, 178 pages : illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Despite the fact that studies have been conducted regarding the ways in which tourists adopt specific mobile technologies, there remains a deficiency in research that specifically examines the adoption of mobile technology amongst senior tourists. Specifically, there is a dearth of research on how this demographic utilizes mobile devices for the purpose of booking tourism services (Tan, Lee, Lin, & Ooi, 2017). Although there has been research conducted on tourists’ willingness to use certain types of mobile bookings for tourism, the attention is primarily directed towards the whole population’s adoption of mobile technology within the tourism industry. As more and more senior tourists attempt to utilize mobile tourism booking technologies to make their travel arrangements, it is increasingly vital to explore their adoption intentions towards this technology. This research is imperative in helping tourism service providers to design mobile tourism booking platforms that are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of seniors, thereby enhancing their overall travel experiences. This research aims to explore how likely senior tourists are to use mobile technology for booking tourism arrangements, and also to assess whether their level of anxiety towards technology affects their adoption of mobile tourism booking technologies. In contrast to social networking sites that are pertinent to the tourism industry, consumers who make purchases through mobile devices are required to gather extensive information from various intermediaries, compare prices and make bookings (Park & Tussyadiah, 2016). This can result in losses that are entirely attributed to the consumer, who have minimal resources to rectify any transactional errors (Park & Tussyadiah, 2016). Furthermore, it is imperative to note that seniors are particularly prone to experiencing technology anxiety, which may manifest as frustration or apprehension while engaging with mobile tourism booking platforms. This technology anxiety, in turn, plays a moderate role in determining seniors’ adoption intentions towards mobile technology (Huang, Jabor, Tang, & Chang, 2021). It is also important to acknowledge that the adoption behavior of seniors in relation to mobile technology differs from that of younger generations, as it is influenced by cognitive abilities such as fluid intelligence and crystal intelligence, as well as physical abilities including visual skills, auditory skills, and fine motor skills, all of which decline with age (Huang et al., 2021). However, despite this significant discrepancy, there is currently a dearth of research focused on senior tourists’ adoption behavior intentions towards mobile technology within the context of mobile tourism bookings, particularly with regard to their unique adoption intentions in comparison to other generations. The study on senior tourists utilized a modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model and employed a mixed-method approach that combined both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Specifically, the study utilized the snowballing sample method to conduct in-depth interviews with 11 senior tourists in Hangzhou, China, and the collected data was analyzed using the thematic method as part of the qualitative research step. In the quantitative research step, the designed questionnaire is delivered to the target samples, there are total 650 questionnaires were distributed, and a total 516 were deemed usable for analysis. The structural equation model (SEM) is used in this step, and the data will be analyzed by SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 together. The analysis results revealed that Performance Expectation (.213***), Effort Expectation (.224***), Facilitated Cognitive Abilities Conditions (.132*), Facilitated Physical Functioning Conditions (.300***), and Social Influence (.161***) have a significant positive impact on senior tourist’s adoption behavior intention towards mobile tourism booking technologies. Particularly, facilitated physical functioning conditions (.300***) demonstrate the most positive impact on behavior intention, while technology anxiety (-.112*) exerts a significant negative impact on it. Furthermore, Technology Anxiety moderates Performance Expectation (-.168***), Effort Expectation (-.084*), Facilitated Cognitive Abilities Conditions (-.128***), and Facilitated Physical Functioning Conditions (-.155***) to senior tourist’s adoption behavior intention towards mobile tourism booking technologies. Additionally, Effort Expectation has an impact on Performance Expectation, while Facilitated Cognitive Abilities Conditions affect Effort Expectation. However, the technology anxiety did not have a moderate effect between social influence and senior tourists’ adoption behavior on mobile tourism bookings, which may due to senior tourists hold support from their social environment that could eliminate the effect of technology anxiety on their adoptions. Moreover, facilitated physical function conditions did not affect effort expectation to senior tourist’s adoption intention on mobile tourism booking technology. This may because of seniors in China hold the thoughts that they are old but vigorous, they still want to hold the image that they can do with mobile tourism booking technologies. In the theoretical aspect, the study contributes an integrated framework contributes to the tourism and marketing literature by uniting the UTAUT model, technology anxiety, especially a senior tourist’s adoption intention model towards mobile technologies is built at the end of the study. It extends the theorized technology adoption model propounded by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003) by redefining new constructs, i.e. facilitated cognitive ability functions and facilitated physical functions which are crucial to senior tourists when they are trying to adopt mobile tourism bookings. Technology anxiety is also integrated into this model which is moderating senior tourist adoption intention when they are trying to adopt mobile tourism bookings as well. Finally, this study contributes to the scarce literature on understanding the senior tourist adopting intention on mobile technologies in the context of mobile tourism bookings. In an emerging market context, the proposed practical contributions are that the findings as well provide government policymakers and engineers with feasible ideas on policy and designing amendments in promoting senior tourist-friendly mobile tourism booking technologies, to contribute and respond to the global and national appeal of “happy ageing”. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7319.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.25 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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