Assessing the moderating effect of COVID-19 on intention to use smartphones on the tourist shopping journey

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104361

Tourism Management

Volume 87, December 2021, 104361

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2021.104361 Get rights and content

Under a Creative Commons license

open access

Highlights

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COVID-19 has caused changes in the technological behaviour of tourists.
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Destinations must create specific protocols to allow contact-free shopping.
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The pandemic has increased the functionality of the smartphone in tourist shopping.
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Tourists have increased intention to make payments using their smartphones.

Abstract

This work proposes the first model to examine the moderating effect of the COVID-19 syndemic on the acceptance and use of smartphones during the tourist shopping journey. The model was tested with 1800 tourists, 900 non-COVID-19 (i.e. prior to COVID-19) and 900 during the COVID-19 period. The results showed that: 1) the model has better fit for the COVID-19 period as its explanatory capacity for that stage is greater (R² = 0.773) than for the non-COVID-19 period (R² = 0.691); 2) tourists have increased their intention to use smartphones, especially to make payments for purchases; and 3) there are statistically significant differences in the impact of four of the six model variables (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and arousal). This research advances knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on the technological behaviour of tourists, has important practical implications, and raises new research questions about the future of tourism.

Keywords

COVID-19

Tourist shopping journey

Technology acceptance models

Smartphone

Moderating effect

Performance expectancy

Effort expectancy

Social influence

Cited by (0)

Alba García-Milon is currently a PhD candidate and a researcher staff at the Faculty of Business Administration in the University of La Rioja (Spain). Her research interests include tourist shopping, consumer behaviour and new technologies adoption.

Cristina Olarte-Pascual is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at the University of La Rioja (Spain). She holds a PhD in economics and management from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She is also Director of the Chair in Commerce at the University of La Rioja. Her main research interests include consumer behaviour, mobile marketing and marketing innovation.

Emma Juaneda-Ayensa holds a PhD in Economics and Management with European Mention and is professor of business organization at the University of La Rioja (Spain). Her main research lines are quality management systems and customer satisfaction, social economy and sustainable development and technological factors conditioning the user's behaviour.