A research about mobile technology acceptance of consumers in tourism industry

Thanks to the ubiquitous nature and advantage of mobile technologies, mobile marketing has a remarkable potential. The success of the recent marketing tools like mobile marketing depends to a great extent to its acceptance by the consumers. Understanding he factors that affect the consumers' technology acceptance process is important in terms of developing an effective marketing strategy. As one of the rapidly growing industries around the world, tourism has always been in the frontline in terms of using the new technologies and used the advantages of the synergy generated by the technologies. Consumers use the mobile devices almost at all phases before, while and after their travels. In this study, which is designed based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the factors and relevant variables which affect the acceptance levels of travelers regarding the mobile marketing applications were investigated. Moreover, the correlations between these variables and the factors affecting the consumers' attitudes towards using the mobile technologies were analyzed. The results suggested there are statistically significant correlations between smart phone experiences and perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in terms of mobile technology experience dimension, as well as between level of laptop experiences and perceived usefulness, while no significant correlations were found between other mobile technology levels. There were also statistically significant correlations between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, and attitudes towards use; and between attitudes towards use and behavioral intention dimensions. When consumers' attitudes towards using mobile technologies were analyzed according to their demographics, significant differences were found between consumers' attitudes by age, educational background, and monthly income, but not gender. Key Words: Tourism Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Technology, Technology Acceptance Model