Future of Tourism Marketing

Seongseop (Sam) Kim, Dan Wang, Seongseop (Sam) Kim, Dan Wang

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032008349
• eBook ISBN: 9781000403961
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Industria dell'ospitalità e del turismo
• Index: Business

Marketing in the tourism and hospitality industry has transformed with the development of digital marketing tools and the evolution of social culture. Recently, the advent of new technologies such as smartphones, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robots, and new GIS systems has created more possibilities for marketing innovations. Advancements in information technology are leading to changes in business processes, service standards, and management mindsets. Meanwhile, consumers are also adapting to the new marketing paradigm. Researchers are interested in studying this newly-emerging and unpredictable business environment, customer decision making, new management tactics, and business analytic strategies.

Future of Tourism Marketing aims to assess the role of modern technologies in marketing tourism destinations and their effects on potential visitors. This book will provide an update on research into the new marketing paradigm that is developing as a result of new technologies in a post-modern era.

The chapters in this book were originally published in Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing.

Consumer adoption of the Uber mobile application: Insights from diffusion of innovation theory and technology acceptance model

Somang Min, Kevin Kam Fung So and Miyoung Jeong

Abstract

The sharing economy literature has largely concentrated on the examination of peer-to-peer accommodation platforms such as Airbnb, with little attention paid on other innovations in collaborative consumption. This study investigates consumer adoption of the Uber mobile application through lenses of two theoretical models – Diffusion of Innovation Theory and Technology Acceptance Model. The results suggest that relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, and social influence have a significant influence on both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, which in turn lead to subsequent consumer attitudes and adoption intentions. This study demonstrates the integration of the two classic adoption theories.

Introduction

The sharing economy is a trending business concept, which has recently emerged as an innovative business model where people collaboratively make use of underutilized resources in innovative ways (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014). This new consumption model, described as “disruptive innovation”, has challenged the traditional business concept by altering the modes of business as well as shifting the concept of consumption – what to consume and how to consume (Botsman & Rogers, 2011). Most notably, consumers are getting the option to share or rent resources such as cars and rooms from each other rather than from traditional businesses such as taxi companies and hotels (Satama, 2014).

One of the most typical representatives of collaborative consumption adopted in the tourism industry is Uber. Uber utilizes a mobile application that provides an online network for people to share rides by connecting independent drivers and customers (Hall, Kendrick, & Nosko, 2015). It has taken a role of a traditional taxi and is becoming more and more popular, reaching up to 40 million monthly active riders worldwide in 2016 (Kokalitcheva, 2016). Also, its popularity can be seen from the ranking of free download applications both in Apple and Android market, where Uber was ranked top 20 as of 2017 (iTunes; Google Play). In fact, the idea of sharing rides would not have been possible without the development of smartphones as a new technology. Since smartphones are now embedded in people’s daily lives (Wang, So, & Sparks, 2014), it has changed the way people live, communicate, and conduct transactions (De Ridder, 2016). The unique characteristics of a smartphone include diversifying the input capability, Internet access, and location awareness functions (Want, 2009). These unique functions enable drivers and consumers to receive real-time information of users’ location, which makes their sharing possible. As such, smartphones make it easier for travelers to access the Uber mobile application anytime and anywhere, when they need to take an Uber.

However, despite the increasing adoption of such new technology by travelers, as well as the thriving sharing economy as a whole, few studies have examined the factors affecting the adoption of the Uber mobile application. While a significant body of the literature on the sharing economy is developing, most recent studies have concentrated on the business or governmental perspective, such as impact of Airbnb on the tourism industry (Oskam & Boswijk, 2016), local regulations of Uber (Rauch & Schleicher, 2015), how to overcome regulations as a barrier (Cannon & Summers, 2014), impacts on global sustainability (Cohen & Kietzmann, 2014), rather than focusing on the consumers’ perspective. A review of the literature suggests that very limited studies have examined consumers’ perspective, with the exception of several recent studies. For example, Zhu, So, and Hudson (2017) examined consumers’ motivations behind the adoption of mobile applications of the sharing economy, Liu and Mattila (2017) studied consumer decisions on Airbnb, So, Oh, and Min (2018) modeled motivations and constraints of Airbnb consumers, and Tussyadiah and Pesonen (2016) examined the impact of peer-to-peer accommodation on travelers’ behavior. Despite the rapid growth of the sharing economy, the literature still lacks empirical research addressing a critical research question of this phenomenon from the consumer’s perspective: What are the main factors that affect consumers to adopt the Uber mobile application (both from the aspect of the business concept and the technological aspect)? As such, this study sets forth to examine factors influencing consumer utilization of the Uber mobile application by integrating diffusion of innovation theory (DIT) and technology acceptance model (TAM).

The new theoretical model introduced in this study contributes to the literature by advancing our current understanding of consumers’ adoption behavior through the lens of TAM and DIT, and by providing important practical insights to enhance industry practices. The ensuing section presents the theoretical foundation upon which this investigation is based, followed by a theoretical framework that integrates TAM and DIT. The research hypotheses are developed based on previous relevant literature. Next, the research methodology is discussed along with the results. Finally, this paper concludes with discussions of theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations and suggestions for future research.

Theoretical background

In examining factors affecting the adoption of the Uber mobile application, this study takes an innovative approach by integrating diffusion of innovation theory (DIT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM). DIT is known to be useful in understanding specific innovation characteristics (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1983) and TAM recognizes the key factors that affect the acceptance of a new innovation (Venkatesh & Davis, 2000). Integrating the two theories can not only explain consumers’ general perception towar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface: future of tourism marketing
• 1 Consumer adoption of the Uber mobile application: Insights from diffusion of innovation theory and technology acceptance model
• 2 Marketing robot services in hospitality and tourism: the role of anthropomorphism
• 3 Classifying technological innovation attributes for hotels: an application of the Kano model
• 4 The view from above: the relevance of shared aerial drone videos for destination marketing
• 5 Using tracking technology to improve marketing: insights from a historic town in Tasmania, Australia
• 6 Consequences of psychological benefits of using eco-friendly services in the context of drone food delivery services
• 7 Integrating virtual reality devices into the body: effects of technological embodiment on customer engagement and behavioral intentions toward the destination
• 8 Tourists as Mobile Gamers: Gamification for Tourism Marketing
• Index