The quick adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) across the world, particularly in tourism, aiming to revolutionize the creation of the travel experience or improve it, happens without specifying the most appropriate ICT or its actual results. While visitors adopting personal ICTs in search of fluid, efficient and personalized trips, emerge; regardless of the tourist destination, empowering themselves with smart devices in pursuit of extraordinary experiences and value. The objective of this research was to comprehend the effect of the use of ICT by tourists on their travel experience. Mexican tourists traveling within the country for pleasure using smart devices with internet connection were evaluated. Data were obtained using snowball sampling on social media and analyzed with SEM to define the relationships and the factors that are affected and comprise the smart tourist experience. The results show that there is a preferential use of smartphones and tablets and search engines and maps rather than applications (apps). Also, a notable influence of ICT is experiencing something new and enjoying activities that the tourist wanted to do. The factors comprising the smart tourist experience are learning about oneself during the trip, making the trip more exciting and memorable, and feeling surprised.
Internationally, billions of people have unprecedented access to mobile technologies [26]. This rapid
and intense adoption of ICT in all fields of the human sphere has caused a fundamental change in how
tourist experiences are created, exchanged, consumed and shared [
Although the concepts of smart tourism and smart destinations have been widely promoted, these
concepts may be far from the reality of destinations and tourists [
The experience is being studied by marketing scholars as experience of consumption using models
such as the thought-attitude and emotion model of Holbrook and Hirschman of 1982, the
cognitiveaffective model of Engel et al. from 1978, the information processing model, the experiential model
and various integrative models; but mostly on the theory of consumer culture and Service-Dominant
Logic (SDL) [
Regarding the touristic experience, authors such as Quinlan Cutler and Carmichael (2010) define it as a subjective, intangible, continuous and highly personal phenomenon. While Pine and Gilmore (1999) define it using four unique dimensions: education, escapism, aesthetics and entertainment, which are explained by Tan (2017), as follows: the experience of escapism relates to the fact that tourists are "immersed" in the environment, which results in the feeling of escaping from their daily lives, the entertainment experience occurs when tourists passively observe the activities that take place in a destination, the aesthetic experience is created when tourists passively enjoy and appreciate being in the destination environment, and the educational experience occurs when tourists increase their knowledge or skill [21].
Tourists are regarded as coproducers of the experiences [18, 21], experiences are complex ones that provoke memories and emotions related to places. Therefore, a place or a self is experienced in a place. The vacation experience is highly subjective, it is integrated by a search for authenticity, identity and self-realization, in addition to the search for a multifaceted leisure activity, which is significant for the individual. Experiences are made up of sensations, emotions and images, among other hedonic components, in addition to satisfaction. [17, 18]. In addition, Prebenson et al. (2014), consider that there are psychological benefits of the travel experience: relaxation, learning, socialization, and mastery (competence).
Note: personal experience is what is of interest in this research. The word experience is recently being used as a synonym for "touristic product". 1.2.
According to Gretzel, Sigala, et al. (2015), the experience in the context of smart tourism is efficient
and rich in meaning. In it tourists are active participants in the creation of it [
Some authors mention that the use of smartphones encourages unplanned activities. They are seen as a portable platform to be in community, socialize and encourage or facilitate opportunities for interaction between tourists, which is recognized as a source of vacation experience satisfaction [24]. We could say the visitor could be creating his own tourist experience by generating for himself a tailormade touristic product and by regulating his personal experience by using ICT.
On the other hand, the authors indicate that the study of the tourist has been neglected [15, 19], there is a lack of knowledge regarding the access and level of adoption of ICTs by the tourists and the existence of tourists [13], whether in regular or smart tourism contexts [29], and the behaviours previously described in the literature are taken for granted [19].
There is a lack of empirical support to demonstrate that tourists are "smart" meaning they want to
have a super connected experience or are able of [
We used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to determine if there is a relationship between the independent variable Use of ICT and the dependent variable Experience. Because the experience variable is a latent variable, this conducted to the factors affected that could compose the smart experience.
The ICT Use variable includes the use of smart devices connected to the Internet, including cell phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches, and desktop computers during their trip, both the use of software (search engines, maps, videos, social networks, travel apps, etc.) and hardware (type of smart devices), the kind of Internet connection, the level of use and the utility that the devices had in activities related to the trip. In this sense, no in-depth study was carried out on applications for mobile devices, nor the use of search engines and internet pages.
Tourist experience as a synonym for the touristic product [12], is not addressed in this study. Personal experience is studied, and it includes an emotional component. 2.2.
The study focuses on Mexican men and women over 18 years old and up to 70 years old, who reside in the country, with higher than secondary education (undergraduate and postgraduate), and who have visited a destination within Mexico for pleasure in the last six months and have used electronic devices with an Internet connection (smart devices) during this trip.
Snowballing sampling was used for the data collection, which was done online, following [
2 ∗ ∗ ∗ 2 ∗ ( − 1) + 2 ∗ ∗ 2.4.
The general design of the research allows evaluation of the effect of the Use of ICT in the Experience (which is a latent variable), this is shown in figure 1.
H1: the use of ICT has a positive relationship and an incremental effect on the Touristic Experience. 2.5.
An online questionnaire was created using Google Forms from the Google Suite, with 47 reagents, which allow profiling the interviewee, allowing to know the generalities of the trip, the Use of ICT, and the Tourist Experience. The questionnaire was tested and adjusted through two pilot tests. The results were emptied in SPSS and examined using Cronbach's alpha to check reliability and factor analysis to confirm the validity of the instrument.
The reagents used for the evaluation of the level of Use of ICT were based on the proposal of [22],
and modified from the researches of [24, 25, 29] and [29, 10]. The reagents to measure the Touristic
Experience were taken from those of Rivera Lozano (2018) and modified based on the items used in
the studies by [
To obtain the data, social networks and chats were used as a means of distribution of the questionary based on the recommendations given by the Electronic Marketing Manual for Tourist Destinations [27], as well as by authors such as [22].
The questionnaire had to be filled out on one occasion. The information was collected from November 2019 to January 2020. Social network users were considered more likely to have used mobile devices with an Internet connection during vacations, so it was considered that what [14], call "likelihood with the real population". The people were contacted personally, using social networks such as Facebook, as well as Facebook and WhatsApp chats, through which they were asked to participate and to invite more people who met the profile to answer the questionnaire online, the link to the questionnaire was provided by these means too.
We obtained 227 questionnaires, of which 224 were valid. The data was loaded to Microsoft Excel from Microsoft Office 2011, to be coded and normalized, necessary to perform a principal component analysis (PCA) (Fearn, 2011), or factorial analysis. This standardizing technique does not lose any generality and allows to achieve zero mean and unit variance (Acock, 2013; Joliffe & Morgan, 1992) and retains a greater proportion of the original variation by using derived variables instead of a simple subset of variables (Joliffe & Morgan, 1992). Subsequently, an exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis was performed using the Stata13 program. Then, for Use of ICT, an index was created using PCA. Subsequently, we modelled through SEM with Maximum Likelihood using the SEM builder of the Stata 13 program, following the suggestions given by [23]. The model was evaluated and respecified using the modification indices to explain more variance in the model.
The sample is made up of 224 people, of which 132 are women (59%) and 92 are men (41%). 30% of the sample studied at least up to basic education level (high school), 45.8% to a higher level, and 24.2% to a postgraduate level. 99.6% indicated that they used their smartphone during their trip, 85% indicated that they always use their smart devices during vacations and 10.7% that they do so almost always; 64.4% declared that they always plan their trips and 26.7% that they almost always did too, while 64% assign a budget to their vacations and 23.6% almost always assign a budget to them. Only 12% hire accommodation services, food and beverages, recreation, etc., once in the destination.
The most used hardware with WiFi and internet data is the smartphone at 76.33%, while only with WiFi it was the smart tablet at 21.87%. The most used device was the smartphone with 91.96% and the most useful with 94.19%, followed by the tablet with 16.07% being the second most useful with 20.53%. The phone is the most used for all online activity, especially for searching travel information in the tourist destination, communicating with friends and family, and sharing their experience with family and friends (with up to 78.12%). The second most used device was the laptop, for information search and facts confirmation (with a maximum percentage of 10.71% in each activity).
Regarding the use of software or applications, the most used were search engines, followed by maps and social networks. The number of applications used according to the type of destination is higher in colonial destinations, followed by urban ones. The constant use of map and GPS software stands out.
The descriptive statistics about the influence of ICT on the experience is shown on table 1. Regarding emotions, one of the components of the experience, 78.3% indicated that the trip was surprising due to the use of smart devices with an internet connection, in the same way, 77.46% felt excited about their trip, 84.9 % felt safer by using such devices, while 85.3% felt that the destination was safe for the same reason.
The results of the modelling show that not all the factors are affected in a significant way. Factors whose significance is 0.000 were retained in the model. The Use of ICT affects more the learning about oneself during the trip, making the trip more exciting, memorable, and feeling surprised. The significance of the effects of ICT use on the travel experience is 0.001, and its effect is positive since, for each point of technology, the experience will increase by .086 (see figure 2). The goodness of fit shows that at least 93.4% of the covariance in the data can be reproduced by the proposed model (see Figure 3).
The results show a tourist who is similar to the one found by [10]. They prefer the smartphone at all
times, and if WiFi is available, tablets are preferred. They search for information and help themselves
with the logistics of the trip through online maps. They use the web similarly to what [
Unlike what was reported by [
Regarding the Travel Experience, the empirical data shows that the use of ICT was considered as responsible for experiencing new things and different activities or activities that they wanted to do and having a happy trip, in addition to feeling that the destination was safe. This may be because the ICT allows them to discover the destinations to navigate them by themselves and adjust the trip to achieve their objectives. This result is similar to the contribution of [24].
This is one of the most interesting results since it tells us about the behaviour and how a smart tourist, present in regular destinations, could be defined, also showing a visitor who actively participates and is not only a provider of information for the tourism industry.
Regarding the SEM modelling, for the hypothesis the goodness of fit statistics are as follows: the CFI was 0.943 indicating that at least 94.3% of the covariance in the data can be reproduced by the model, the TLI index of 0.932. The RMSEA of 0.093 and the SRMR of 0.034. Based on the goodnessof-fit statistics, hypothesis 1 is verified: the use of technology has a positive relationship and an incremental effect on the experience. With the previously described, the objective of evaluating the effect on the Experience during pleasure trips from the use of smart devices with an internet connection by the tourist is considered fulfilled.
The author wishes to thank Conacyt for the scholarship received to carry out this research and her doctoral studies. She also thanks Conacyt's CEMAI for the training in writing academic manuscripts in English.