Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

Wang, Wei

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-01-2018-0004

Smartphones have influenced tourists’ information search behaviors and trip experiences in various ways. Operationalized in the air travel context, this study aims to apply the technology acceptance model (TAM) to unveil the causal relationships and potential compatibility or consistency between smartphone apps and travelers’ prior experiences, perceived technological congruence and technology value, attitudes toward price change and usage intentions.Design/methodology/approachResearch data were collected via an online survey administered by a survey sampling company. The online questionnaire queries respondents’ frequency of downloading smartphone apps, familiarity with travel-related mobile apps, frequency of travel experiences, perceived technological congruence of the app and travel needs, attitudes toward price change, intention to purchase the mobile app and demographic information.FindingsResults from structural equation modeling analysis indicate that travelers’ smartphone usage experiences significantly influence their perception of the device’s technological value in relation to travel needs and therefore results in positive attitudes toward price of the new mobile app and intention to use it. Prior trip experience, however, was not found to be an influential determinant in consumers’ smartphone acceptability, which departs from the existing literature.Originality/valueThis study provides evidence for the need to include perceived technological congruence in the construct of travelers’ TAM. It highlights the influence of the technology congruence variable and the compatibility of apps and travel needs in the literature.

Dimitrovski, Darko; Joukes, Veronika; Rachão, Susana; Tibério, Manuel Luís

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-10-2017-0115

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the competitiveness through brand enhancement of the Douro wine tourism apps in light of their content and functionality in comparison to international wine tourism apps.Design/methodology/approachThe content and functionality features of both the Douro and international wine apps are evaluated to determine any statistically significant differences between items. A frequency analysis and chi-square are calculated at item and variable levels, a Shapiro–Wilks test is used to test normality and an independent t-test is deployed to examine the differences in customer ratings and number of downloads.FindingsThere is a significant difference between the Douro and international wine apps on an item level, although there is no significant difference between the groups with regard to their content and functionality features in general.Research limitations/implicationsBy focussing only on the Douro region, 13 other demarcated Portuguese wine regions have been excluded.Practical implicationsWine tourism apps could influence destination branding, as they can inform about the wine region and wine-related activities. A clear layout makes it easier to move through the app, and the use of social media and entertainment enhances user experiences, especially for younger generations.Social implicationsPractical guidelines are proposed for wine tourism marketers and managers wishing to upgrade their destination brand image and its services to satisfy demanding wine tourists.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature about mobile apps in tourism with a content and functionality analysis of wine apps as variables in the technology acceptance model and of their impact on destination branding.

Moliner-Velázquez, Beatriz; Fuentes-Blasco, María; Gil-Saura, Irene

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-11-2017-0120

This study aims to examine how technologies contribute to consumer loyalty in the tourist industry. To achieve this objective, information and communication technology (ICT) development and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) are analysed to explore their direct and indirect effects on satisfaction and loyalty dimensions. The moderating role of customer characteristics (personal and experience-related variables) is also considered to study the complex relationship between satisfaction and loyalty.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study based on a questionnaire structured was developed. The survey was conducted with 386 guests from Spanish hotels. SEM methodology is applied to estimate the structural equation model and multi-group analysis.FindingsResults confirm significant relationships in the sequence “ICT advancement-satisfaction with ICT-satisfaction with hotel-loyalty”, the mediating effect of eWOM and the moderating effects of the customer characteristics.Practical implicationsICT can be a key element to improve loyalty and differentiate from competitors. Managers should recognise that customers will have different loyalty behaviours according to their personal characteristics and type of experience.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the recent and still scanty research line on ICT advancement from the consumer perspective. The novelty lies in the relationships between ICT, satisfaction and loyalty in hotels with particular attention to WOM (both personal and electronic) and the inclusion of different moderating variables.

Morosan, Cristian; DeFranco, Agnes

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-02-2018-0012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of several hotel promotional factors and consumers’ behavioral and demographic characteristics on their actual use of specific interactive information systems in hotels. The specific systems examined in this study were a hotel’s website, mobile app, push notification system, kiosk, smart TV in room, and tablet at front desk or in room.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with a sample of 841 respondents who had stayed in a hotel that had interactive information systems. Logistic regression models were designed with the promotional factors (e.g. hotel staff encouraging purchasing products, push notifications or information presented on mobile devices or kiosks, seeing or hearing about other consumers using systems, advertising and press releases), behavioral variables (e.g. frequency and duration of stay) and demographic variables (e.g. gender and age) as independent variables. The independent variables were the individual systems used by guests.FindingsThe various promotional factors had a differential effect on consumers’ use of various interactive information systems. Information provided on mobile devices, staff encouraging purchasing and press releases and blogs, along with age and duration of stay, was found to have the highest impact on system usage.Originality/valueThis study examines for the first time, as per the authors’ knowledge, the actual use behavior of several hotel interactive systems, thus advancing the technology adoption literature. This study also utilizes a comprehensive list of hotel promotional factors that are able provide theoretical and empirical insight into the use of interactive systems, which was explained predominantly based on system perceptions and consumers’ characteristics.

Benevolo, Clara; Spinelli, Riccardo

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-09-2017-0097

This paper aims to explore the use of websites by tourist ports to assess whether they support ports in communicating their image and provide information and services to actual and potential customers.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis of 129 tourist ports websites from ten Mediterranean countries was conducted using the 2QCV3Q model, a multi-purpose qualitative evaluation tool based on experts’ judgments.FindingsThe findings show that tourist ports’ websites are typically beautiful and well-managed, give ports a clear image and link them with the local territory; however, sample websites are only partially user-friendly, offer limited room for interaction and fail to provide all the expected information and services to the visitors.Originality/valueThis research provides an unprecedented picture of the use and quality of websites by tourist ports located in the Mediterranean Sea and offers a robust and exhaustive assessment tool that might be of interest to researchers. The tool might also help managers of tourist ports to improve their websites by making them more business- and customer-oriented.

Leung, Xi Y.

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-06-2018-0041

The purpose of this study is to explore how following a destination’s Facebook page changes fans’ visit intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted two waves of data collection before and after following a Facebook page over a three-month period and collected 297 and 172 usable responses. The theory of planned behavior was adopted to build the evolution model. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model was used in testing the proposed evolution model and exploring the changes over time.FindingsFans’ visit intentions significantly improved after following a Facebook page with a strengthened impact of subjective norm on visit intention. The effect of attitude on visit intention showed significant decrease after following the Facebook page, making attitude less important in travelers’ decision-making processes.Practical implicationsThis study proves that destinations’ Facebook pages are effective in terms of improving fans’ visit intentions. Therefore, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) should focus on increasing the number of their Facebook fans and pay most attention to the social influence of Facebook pages.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first attempts to prove the effectiveness of Facebook marketing using a longitudinal approach. The study also contributes to the literature of utilizing PLS-SEM in hospitality and tourism research through applying the procedure of analyzing longitudinal data.

Esfahani, Saba Salehi; Bulent Ozturk, Ahmet

2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology

doi: 10.1108/jhtt-01-2018-0009

This study aims to identify the relationship between individual differences of customers and their intention to use Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile payment (MP) technology in restaurants.Design/methodology/approachAmazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) was used to collect the data of this study. A brief demonstration video of a NFC-MP system on how to use the technology was included at the beginning of the survey to make sure that all respondents had a sufficient understanding of the technology. A total of 410 valid online questionnaires were collected. ANOVA with Dunnett’s C post hoc analysis was used to compare the groups’ mean differences of gender, age, prior experience, income and education.FindingsThe findings indicated that there are significant differences in customers’ intention to use NFC technology in restaurants for past experience, age and gender. However, unlike previous studies’ statements, education and income did not play a significant role in restaurant customers’ NFC MP adoption behavioral intention.Research limitations/implicationsThis study investigated the restaurant customers’ NFC “intention to use” and did not observe the restaurant consumers’ actual behavior. A longitudinal study measuring actual behavior would be more beneficial to support the result of this study. Likewise, this study did not include the potential differences that might exist between various restaurant segments and ownerships (e.g. franchise vs chain or fast food vs fine dining). Accordingly, future studies should take this factor into account and replicate the study to detect any potential differences in restaurant customers’ behavioral intention.Practical implicationsSegmenting the market according to customers’ demographics could be a competitive advantage for the company. Based on the findings of this study, technology vendors and restaurant operators can define and design more effective strategies that are compatible with various market segments to increase the adoption of NFC-MP technology.Originality/valueFood and travel experts believe that mobile payment will soon become the preferred method of payment in near future. Moreover, many restaurants in the USA are currently utilizing NFC-based MP systems because of its benefits. However, recent market research shows that NFC-based MP is still not popular among restaurant customers, as its rate of adoption is low. As little research has been conducted on MP in general and on consumers’ NFC-based MP adoption behavior in particular, a better understanding of individual differences influencing the adoption of mobile payments should be acquired.