Planned serendipity: exploring tourists’ on-site information behaviour

Abstract

The paper investigates tourist information behaviour on-site in light of the ubiquitous access to information afforded by smartphones. The study problematizes existing literature on information search behaviour and connects it with theories of unplanned behaviour. Through the concept of planned serendipity, the paper highlights how tourist information behaviour is a complex phenomenon that does not necessarily answer to a dichotomy between spontaneity and planning. The study employs a combination of Experience Sampling Method and semi-structured interviews, which allow the researcher to collect data both during and after the trip. Four themes are identified that challenge key assumptions in tourist information behaviour literature: (1) emergent and contingent plans, (2) cognitive effort on-site: iterative and specific search process, (3) tourist-centric orientation in time and space, (4) aiming for optimization. The paper concludes that tourists’ ‘phygital’ information environment both enables and constrains serendipity. The dichotomy of structure vs. serendipity is not sufficient to explain the role of serendipity in travel planning, where planned and unplanned behaviour coexist. The paper also contributes to the methodological landscape of research on tourist experiences and shows that everyday technologies like the smartphone can be harnessed to access the on-site stage, reducing recall bias and increasing ecological validity.