Consumers' Use of Smartphone Technology for Travel and Tourism in a COVID Era

Abstract

Mobile phone technology has become a necessary component for today's travellers. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have substantially affected tourism and hospitality consumers over the past two decades. Mobile technologies such as smartphones, tablets, and mobile applications have become travellers' primary access to information. This study focuses on mobile technologies such as smartphones and mobile applications (apps) and consumers' use of mobile technology when travelling. A scoping review following PRISMA guidelines was used to answer the research question; "How do tourism consumers use mobile technologies for travel and tourism during the COVID era?" This study will identify and analyse any relationships, patterns, trends, and gaps in the literature. Peer-reviewed journal articles from the COVID era (2020 to 2022) were included in this study. Articles were sourced using the keywords listed below. The full articles were imported into NVivo, and the main themes and subthemes were extracted from the data and reported using an inductive qualitative thematic analysis. The results from this study identified "food" as the main theme and "food delivery" as the most frequent subtheme. Food, tourism, transportation, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), Hotel Operations, and Shopping were the top 6 themes. The 4IR is changing how smartphone consumers use their devices for travel and tourism. In the COVID Era, Smartphone technology has been recognised as a solution to maintaining safe distancing and contactless transactions. This research will benefit tourism operators and policymakers to remain competitive in an ever-changing environment during the COVID era