The influence of ubiquitous connectivity, trust, personality and generational effects on mobile tourism purchases

Tourism has been considerably impacted by technological advancements, in which smartphones have been key enablers of this transformation, offering convenience and flexibility for online platforms access anytime and anywhere for faster decision-making during a trip. We address this trend by devising and testing a comprehensive conceptual model for predicting travelers’ intentions of mobile tourism purchase. We extend the technology acceptance model (TAM) to include ubiquitous connectivity and trust, two constructs that have been shown to be relevant to both m-commerce and travel contexts. Additionally, we analyze personality traits as potential individual external variables. The results support most of the hypothesis of the proposed model, indicating that, in addition to the TAM constructs (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use), perceived ubiquitous connectivity and trust, together with personality traits such as openness to experience and need for arousal, play a significant role in enhancing the explanation of travelers’ intentions to purchase tourism-related products and services through mobile. Differences in effects related to consumers’ generations (X and Y) are also discussed.