Exploring the Intention of Religious Tourists to Use Travel Apps: The Moderating Role of Digital Privacy

Travel applications (apps) are essential tools for contemporary travel activities in the digital age. These are being used more frequently by religious tourists to access information and carry out travel and tourism-related tasks. So, it is essential for businesses associated with the travel sector to understand the intention of religious tourists towards using mobile travel applications. However, there are only a few empirical studies focusing on the factors that may influence tourists to use mobile travel apps. A research framework based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been proposed in this study to examine how and to what extent perceived usefulness, ease of use, and social influence affect the attitudes and intentions of tourists towards travel apps. The study validates the suggested research model using survey data from 336 religious tourists in Uttar Pradesh. The findings demonstrate that perceived usefulness and social influence have positive and substantial impacts on the attitudes of tourists, but perceived ease of use has no influence. Further, it also shows a positive effect of attitude on intentions to use travel apps. In addition to this, the results confirm that the privacy concerns of tourists negatively moderate the relationship between their attitudes and intentions with respect to travel apps. The results of this research intend to help firms in the tourism industry get comprehensive insights into the behaviour of tourists regarding the use of travel applications.