Older adults’ engagement with travel apps: a scoping review

Travel apps increasingly shape how trips are planned, navigated, and booked. Older adults often face challenges due to digital divides in device ownership, internet connectivity, willingness to engage, and digital literacy. Yet little remains known about how older adults engage with travel apps in practice, why they do so, and how this shapes travel-related outcomes. This scoping review examines older adults’ engagement with travel apps through first-, second-, and third-level digital divides. A Scopus and Web of Science search following PRISMA-ScR guidelines was supplemented by backward and forward citation tracking (n = 20). Data on study characteristics, engagement patterns, influencing factors, and travel-related outcomes were extracted and synthesised thematically. Findings reveal that travel app engagement is shaped by interacting contextual, psychological, and digital literacy factors. Furthermore, while the reviewed literature examines engagement with travel apps, relatively little attention has been paid to how engagement translates into travel-related outcomes. This study presents a conceptual framework highlighting the need to treat travel app engagement as a dynamic, context-dependent process rather than a linear adoption trajectory. Perceived accessibility provides a useful lens to study how travel app engagement may translate into travel-related outcomes. Future research should examine how psychological factors, digital literacy, and engagement interact over time to shape older adults’ perceived travel opportunities.