mobile devices as a tourism distribution channel: perceptions of visitors to national parks in south...

ENTER 2014 Research Track Slide Number 1

Mobile devices as a tourism distribution channel: perceptions of

visitors to national parks in South Africa

Anneli Douglas & Berendien Lubbe

Division of Tourism Management: Department of Marketing Management

University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa


Agenda

• Introduction

• Tourism distribution and mobile devices

• Methodology

• Results

• Discussion and conclusion


Introduction

• Growth in the use of mobile devices• Alternative channel of information• Users can browse the web, monitor emails, read

news, do bookings and make transactions with their handheld devices.


• A number of research studies have been conducted on the use of mobile devices in the tourism industry (Rasinger, Fuchs & Höpken, 2007; Rasinger, Fuchs, Höpken & Beer, 2009; Lee & Mills, 2010; Wang, Park & Fesenmaier, 2012; No & Kim, 2013),

• A few have investigated how mobile devices are used to distribute the tourism product (Wang & Wang, 2010; Christou & Kassianidis, 2010).


• The purpose of this study is to assess the use of mobile devices to make reservations at a nature-based organisation in South Africa (SANParks)– To identify the features which visitors deem important

when transacting via mobile devices with SANParks, and – To determine the level of satisfaction with the mobile

website as well as propensity to use a mobile application, should SANParks provide one, and

– To ascertain whether significant relationships exist between visitor characteristics and the level of use of mobile devices.


Tourism distribution and mobile devices

• According to Buhalis (2001, p. 8): “The primary distribution functions for tourism are information, combination and travel arrangement services. Most distribution channels therefore provide information for prospective tourists; bundle tourism products together; and also establish mechanisms that enable consumers to make, confirm and pay for reservations”.


• Distribution channels range from traditional offline channels to various online channels and platforms.

• Due to the increasing importance of mobile devices, their use for tourism distribution and the extent to which suppliers and customers interact via this channel must be recognised.


• Mobile communication:– offers the supplier an opportunity to communicate directly with

consumers anytime and anywhere. – offers a number of benefits such as high availability, ability to use

e-commerce services irrespective of time or place and movability and location awareness capabilities (Siau, Lim, & Shen, 2001; Varshney & Vetter, 2002).

• Furthermore, m-commerce provides the benefits of the Web, but also permits for distinctive services made possible by the merging of the Internet with mobile technology. For the tourism industry, mobile commerce is a vital ingredient of the travellers’ complete travel experience (Eriksson, 2002; Schmidt-Belz et al., 2003).


• M-commerce for travel services has, when compared to in-store travel agency shop ping, two core benefits. – First, it provides travellers with a higher level of

convenience.– Second, on-line reservations and check-in over a mobile

device save travellers time.


Features deemed important when finding tourist information are the same, whether using a mobile device or a tourism website,and thus the research on factors deemed important when using a tourism website, can also be used to explain factors important when using a mobile device.•Delone and McLean (2003): personalised, complete, relevant, easy to understand and secure if potential buyers are to make transactions through the web. •Wang and Wang (2010): detailed, timely, accurate, reliable and selective


• Travellers’ satisfaction with websites: E-SAT model developed by Mills and Morrison (2003) where they identified characteristics of e-consumer satisfaction with travel websites based on three main constructs: travel website interface (TWI), the perceived quality of a travel website (PQTW) and the perceived value of a travel website (PVTW).


• Some factors also influence a traveller’s willingness to use a mobile device for travel activities. These include demographics for example age, culture, and personality traits, technological self-efficacy, and the apparent importance of mobile devices to travellers (Lubbe & Louw, 2010). Lubbe and Louw (2010) further postulate that there is a significant correlation between a traveller’s “mobile readiness” and the mobile device’s perceived value across the travel cycle, and that “mobile readiness” is also correlated to the purpose of the trip and the frequency of travel.


Methodology• Past visitors to SANParks, who had made use of their distribution

channels, were selected. • A self-administered, web-based questionnaire was developed

and the link to the questionnaire posted on the SANParks website. In total, 418 usable responses were gathered from the online survey.

• Paper-based questionnaires were also distributed at the head office walk-in reservation office, as well as a satellite walk-in reservation office where 121 paper-based questionnaires were collected, which resulted in a total number of 539 responses.


Data analysis and resultsTable 2. Respondents’ profile

Demographic profile Percentage Age 18-35 36-50 51-60 Over 60

17.17 31.11 24.68 27.04

Gender Male Female

50 50

Frequency of visits More than once a year Once a year I haven’t stayed at any of the SANParks in the last two years I haven’t stayed at any of the SANParks in the last five years

65.34 30.46 3.57 0.63


• objective 1: measure the extent to which mobile devices are currently being used as a distribution channel when making a reservation with SANParks.– Respondents were asked to indicate whether they are aware of the

fact that SANParks has a mobile website. Only 139 respondents answered this particular question and of these thirty two per cent said that they were aware that SANParks had a mobile website.

– Thirteen per cent of the total number of respondents said they had used the mobile website to make a SANParks reservation before.


• Objective 2: related to mobile applications, and visitors’ general use of it. Although SANParks does not currently have a mobile application, respondents were asked whether they would use such a facility should SANParks decide to provide one. – Thirty per cent of respondents said they would make use of the

application to facilitate reservations, 28 % said no, and 42% were unsure.

– Respondents were then asked whether they have ever made use of an application to book any accommodation and of the 473 who responded 13% agreed, 79% disagreed, and 8% were unsure.


The respondents, who had used a mobile application before to make accommodation bookings, were requested to indicate the features that they deem important when making an accommodation booking via a mobile application, with the results indicated in table 4.

Table 4. Features deemed important when using a mobile application

M

ean

Std

Dev

Mod

e

Quality of information n=65 1.29 0.65 1.00 Ease of navigation n=65 1.35 0.74 1.00 Ease of use n=66 1.36 0.85 1.00 Interaction and engagement n=65

1.69 0.83 1.00

Price of application n=65 1.74 0.99 1.00


Objective 3: level of satisfaction

Table 3. Level of satisfaction with SANParks mobile website

Mea

n

Std

Dev

Mod

e

Finding the SANParks page n=55

1.82 0.72 2.00

Reputation (credibility of reservation channel) n=56

2.09 0.75 2.00

Ease of finding the SANParks online booking facility n=56

2.13 0.81 2.00

Security of payment process n=56

2.13 0.74 2.00

Simplicity of self-help process n=56

2.16 0.78 2.00

Recognition of your personal details n=56

2.16 0.78 2.00

Ease of payment process n=56

2.18 0.83 2.00

Information available on the mobile site n=56

2.20 0.77 2.00

Time taken to make the reservation n=56

2.23 0.79 2.00

Availability of accommodation n=56

2.70 0.93 3.00

Price of accommodation charged n=56

2.80 0.94 3.00


• Objective 4: Chi-square tests were then conducted to ascertain the relationships between certain identified variables. – The first test aimed to establish whether a relationship

exists between a customer’s skill in using the internet and their use of the mobile website to make a reservation with SANParks. The results shows a probability greater than 95% (p˂0.0338) thus a significant relationship exists.


• A further chi-square shows customers’ skill in using the internet is significantly related (p˂0.0023) to their willingness to use mobile applications had SANParks had this facility.

• A correlation was also drawn between a customer’s level of internet skill and their use of mobile applications to make accommodation bookings which shows a significant association (p˂0.0088).


• Subsequently, we checked to see whether a customer using the SANParks mobile website to make accommodation bookings, would also be willing to use a mobile application to make bookings if SANParks had one. The results showed a significant correlation at a p value ˂0.0001.


Discussion and conclusion• Purpose of the study• In so far as the extent of the use of mobile devices is concerned the

results of this study seems contrary to those of particularly industry-related sources (Viator and Google)

• Based on Mills and Morrison’s (2003) identified characteristics of e-consumer satisfaction our results showed that respondents were most satisfied with the TWI, in other words how easy it was to find the SANParks mobile webpage, followed by the reputation of the booking channel and the ease of finding the online booking facility on the mobile page, and least satisfied with the PVTW, relating to time it took them to make the mobile reservation, the availability of accommodation on the site, and the price of accommodation charged on the mobile page.


• According to No and Kim (2013), travellers who are content with the experiences they have had with travel websites, are keen to look for travel activities information by making use of their mobile devices for their trips. Results from our research confirm this by showing significant relationships between a traveller’s skill in using the internet and their use of mobile websites and mobile applications respectively.

• Should SANParks decide to implement a mobile application, there are several technical/commercial aspects to consider: integration and cooperation, good product design, consider how and when users will be charged for using the application, understand the needs of the user and what the application will be used for, security and privacy.


• Limitations: while a fairly large response was received for the entire questionnaire, the sections on the use of the mobile website and mobile applications received far fewer responses.

• The findings of this study cannot be generalisable to the global population of visitors who use mobile devices for accommodation bookings as the sample was non-random.

mobile devices as a tourism distribution channel: perceptions of visitors to national parks in south...

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