TOURIST ADOPTION OF MAPPING APPS: A UTAUT2 PERSPECTIVE OF SMART TRAVELLERS

Purpose - Mapping apps are location based travel apps used for navigation and routing. These apps are gaining worldwide popularity because of its enormous potential. Despite of the growing popularity and utility of the mapping apps, the published literature in this area is scarce, leaving an unexplored area of research. Thus, the current study aims to identify factors affecting tourist's intentions to use mapping apps while travelling. Design - The Extended Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) was applied as the basis of the present study Methodology - The data was collected from 284 travellers in India using a structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Square approach. Findings - The results indicated that the most significant antecedents of behavioral intentions are habit, facilitating conditions, performance expectancy and hedonic motivation. It was observed that the actual usage behavior was influenced by traveler's intentions and habit to use the technology (mapping apps). However it was noted that effort expectancy, social influence and price value had no significant effects on the tourist's intentions to use mapping apps while travelling. Originality of the research - Till date limited empirical studies have explored the adoption of mapping apps by travelers. This study is unique as it explores the adoption intentions using a relevant theoretical framework in the developing economy context wherein the use of mapping apps is still in the nascent stage. This research contributes to the literature of innovation adoption and provides an interesting perspective to companies developing location based travel mobile apps.