Evaluation of smart phone use in tourism in the context of technology acceptance model

Technological developments have been effective in tourism companies as well as in overall service sectors. The studies demonstrate that internet technologies have frequently been used in the field of marketing among tourism companies. Smartphones are one of the tools of internet technologies that are used in tourism marketing. It is known that tourism companies reach the consumers with some applications through smart phones, with the help of social media tools or directly by informing them via the websites. The purpose of this study is to determine consumer's intent and behaviour with reference to marketing activities of tourism companies through smartphones in the context of technology acceptance. To this end, this study was conducted with 546 students of Open Education Faculty Programs in Turkey. Data were obtained by survey and tested by factor analysis, variance analysis, t test and regression analysis. In this research it is determined that in users' activities related to tourism through smartphones, their acceptance of technology comprises of the dimensions of performance expectation, effort expectation, social impact, ease of handling, price value, hedonic motivation and habits. Some relations are stated between participants' behavioural intent, usage behaviours and age, phone usage experience, the operating system that is used in the smartphone and the size of smartphone. Moreover, it has been found that performance expectations, facilitative conditions, hedonic motivations and habits have impact on users' behavioural intent and usage behaviour in the operations related to tourism which are performed through smartphones.