Actors' Engagement in the Perspective of Value Co-Creation: A Case Study of the Tour Guide Mobile Application

This study focuses on identifying the key value drivers that foster actor engagement within Guidemu, a mobile-based tour guide service platform in Indonesia. Actor engagement plays a vital role in enabling collaborative value creation, particularly in digitally mediated tourism services. Adopting a qualitative approach rooted in a constructivist paradigm, this research engaged nine participants such as platform managers, tour guides, and tourists, through semi-structured interviews to explore their motivations, expectations, and perceived benefits of using the application. Thematic analysis revealed five dominant categories of value drivers: economic, experiential, functional, social, and strategic. Economic value relates to income opportunities and operational efficiency; experiential value emphasizes enjoyment and self-development through local experiences; functional value highlights ease of use, platform reliability, and service accessibility; social value includes recognition, trust-building, and meaningful interactions within the tourism community; while strategic value refers to personal branding and long-term career alignment. These value drivers shape actor perceptions and determine the quality and intensity of their engagement with the platform. The findings suggest that a deeper understanding of these drivers is essential for improving platform design, enhancing service satisfaction, and encouraging sustainable participation from diverse tourism stakeholders. By highlighting the motivational underpinnings of actor engagement, this article contributes to the literature on value co-creation in tourism technology and offers practical insights for application developers, tourism managers, and policymakers who aim to support more inclusive and resilient digital service ecosystems.