An Investigation of the Intention to Visit Smart Tourism Destinations: Domestic Travelers vs. International Travelers

Smart tourism technologies (STTs) enable tourists to obtain travel information instantly and to conduct several contactless transactions, which are preferred by travelers to limit the amount of unnecessary contacts after the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this paper surveyed 451 tourists and investigated the influence of attitudes and self-efficacy on an intention to visit smart tourism destinations. Attributes of STTs and tourists’ expertise and personal innovativeness were explored to understand their influence on attitudes and self-efficacy. Furthermore, we examined the moderating effect of being domestic or international tourists to address the differences in self-efficacy, attitudes, and behavioral intention. Our research findings show that attitudes have a stronger effect on behavioral intention than self-efficacy does, and interactivity has the strongest effect, among other factors, on attitudes. The finding suggests that by focusing on providing interactive services that can respond quickly to tourists’ requests together with personalized information, tourism providers would be able to enhance tourists’ intention to visit smart tourism destinations. Tourist type (domestic vs. international) did moderate the effects of interactivity and personalization on attitudes towards STTs. The finding highlights the differences between the two groups of travelers and provides an initial point for future research.