Tourists' motives for gamified technology use

Game-related technologies have been discussed as a promising means for tourists' co-creation of meaningful experiences. However, little is known about tourists' underlying motivations for using gamified technologies. This study explores tourists' motives for engaging with gamified technology during a pleasure vacation. By employing a qualitative laddering technique based on the rationale of the means-end chain analysis, this study explores tourists' desired end values in using gamified features on a destination-related mobile app. The results show that gamified features help tourists to achieve several superior motivational goals and foster their interactions within the vacation destination. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of motivational affordances of gamified technology and the underlying causality of why people use gamified technology. •Gamified technology helps achieve superior motivational goals.•Achievement, recognition, status, and connectedness are central motives for use.•Reminiscence and positive feelings are additional motives for use.•Gamified technology fosters tourists' interactions with the world.•The satisfaction of needs through gamification stimulates positive experiences.