What Drives the Adoption of Smart Travel Planning Apps? The Relationship between Experiential Consumption and Mobile App Acceptance

Abstract

The increased use of the smart travel planning apps as a new tool in hospitality and hotel industry has changed the way travelers make their travel plans. The apps users obtained their preferred tour itinerary and subsequently determine the choice of theirs tour destinations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the effects of itinerary plans developed by smart travel planning apps on the choiceof tour destination. The underpinning theories were unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and experiential consumption(UTAUT).The study was conducted in Malaysia and the sample consisted of 307 travelers who are familiar with apps usage. Variance-based-PLS technique was used to analyze and test the hypotheses. The resultconfirmedthatUTAUTdimensionshavesignificantrelationshipwiththeintention to use the itinerary. Both hedonic and utilitarian values from personal consumption perspectivesignificantlymotivatetravelers’behavioralintentiontousethesmarttravel apps. This study contributes to the research on the intention and usage behavior of mobile apps technologies by developing an integrative model to explain the intentions and usage behavior of the tour itinerary.