Tourists’ Experiences with Smart Tourism Technology at Smart Destinations and Their Behavior Intentions

Findings
The survey resulted in 1,010 complete responses. About half 
of the respondents were male, with two-thirds holding at 
least an associate degree and above and 39% earning at least 
$70,000 annually. The number of respondents who visited 
one of the smart tourism destinations during the year of 2016 
ranged from 172 to Seattle to 225 to New York City, and two-
thirds of them visited the destinations for pleasure. About 
58% of the respondents were Generation Y, followed by 
Generation X (17%), Baby Boomers (13%), and Generation 
Z (12%) (see Table 1). As expected, the majority of respon-
dents (95%) used a smartphone as their primary smart device 
for communicating, connecting, and enhancing their travel 
experience at the smart tourism destinations.
Table 2 summarizes the type of STTs that the respondents 
used while traveling in the smart tourism destinations to sup-
port or enjoy their trip and their sociodemographic character-
istics. Of the 1,010 respondents, more than three quarters 
(780) used “Google Maps,” followed by “ride-sharing pro-
gram” (508), “city guide app” (422), “mobile payment” 
(411), and “parking apps” (267). Interestingly, not many 
respondents used “bike sharing” (7.3%) and other advanced 
digital technologies such as “virtual reality,” “Internet of 
Things (IoTs),” “mobile NEF/RFID boarding,” “augmented 
reality,” “beacon,” and “mobile concierge.”
Of the 28 different STTs listed, the respondents used 5 to 
6 different STTs on average while visiting the smart tourism 
destinations. More specifically, males (5.8 STTs) used 
slightly more STTs than females (5.1 STTs), and “bleisure” 
travelers (7.6 STTs) used more STTs than business (5.1 
STTs) or leisure travelers (4.8 STTs). Generation X used 
more SSTs (5.9 STTs), followed by Generation Y (5.7 STTs), 
Generation Z (5.00 STTs), and Baby Boomers (4.2 STTs). 
Respondents had different STT usage preferences by gender, 
trip purposes, and generation. Females preferred to use 
Google Maps, ride-sharing program, city guide app, and 
mobile payment more than males, while males used Airbnb,