Impact of Smartphones on Tourist Experience of Singaporean Young Adults

This study examines the impact of smartphones on the tourist experience of Singaporean young adults. It explores the relationship between smartphones and travel experiences, new technologies in the tourism industry, and the overall trip satisfaction. The findings reveal that smartphones enhance tourist experience and the use of private data by travellers.

Abstract
Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, which is contributing to global economic
development. In the current world, innovative technologies are becoming an integral part of the
tourism business and are rapidly getting incorporated into the tourism industry. Innovative
technological advancements and smartphone technologies have excellent potential in terms of
optimising the time and variety of choice of the necessary tourist product for travellers. The
objective of this paper is to study the impact of smartphones on the tourist experience of
Singaporean young adults. This study explores the relationship between smartphones and travel
experiences of tourists in modern time, new technologies in the tourism industry, which affect
destination and its impact on the overall trip satisfaction. The research focuses on Singaporean
young adults since that is where the most use of smartphone and tourism experiences exist and
adopts a quantitative method to study the role of a smartphone is in conjunction with tourism.
The findings reveal that Singaporeans young adults like to travel in a group of three to five with
friends and family. Also, evidence was found that smartphones enhance tourist experience, and
travellers install and share private data with companies even when they don't approve of it.
Keywords:
(Tourism, Technology, Smartphone, Tourist Experience, Singaporean Young Adults)
1.0 Introduction

2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Uses of smartphones
The smartphone users use their mobile phones both private and social lives. Users view their
smartphone as an image of their personality and a device to connect with their friends and
family. The potential of smartphone as a tool for communication and sharing of information has
led to the broad adoption of smartphones in the tourism industry (Kim, & Law, 2015).
Smartphones are perhaps the most crucial external factor in the tourism industry that influences
customer behaviour, and users have quickly adapted to the mobile phone evolution. They are
deconstructing a user’s sense of tourism and reconstructing the concept of travel with the use of
technology, specifically mobile technology. The daily use of smartphones is influencing the
behaviour of tourists and transformations taking place in the tourism industry are linked to
smartphones (Vallespín, Molinillo, & Muñoz-Leiva, 2017).
The rapid integration of smartphones into the tourism industry provides a whole new market for
destination marketing and mobile marketing. Smartphones and smartphone apps have affected
the everyday life of users and have imposed a significant influence on the tourism industry and
tourists. Modern day tourists magnify their travel experience by using smartphones (Gupta,
Dogra, & George, 2018). Some of the smartphone features that help enhance the tourist
experience are fast data connections, coloured screens, cameras, and local connectivity that
enable web browsing, messaging, e-mailing photography, entertainment, locator applications,
executing travel-based transactions and communicating with others with the touch of a button.
Smartphones also allow travellers to visualise the location and facilities within the said
destination (Dickinson, Ghali, Cherrett, Speed, Davies, & Norgate, 2014; Kim, & Law, 2015).
Smartphones provide the tourist with reliable and unlimited internet access, location awareness
functions and support many apps. Smartphones apps are specialised in information search,
information processing, social networking on the go which enables users to share anytime and
anywhere and navigation (Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012) and these apps are available across
the spectrum of travel services, including transport planning, travel planning, accommodation
planning, tour guide and directional services (Gupta, Dogra, & George, 2018). The most
common travel activity is travellers looking for offers and discounts. Many apps provide users
with comparative information, which helps them get the best deals. Smartphone apps also help

users integrate into foreign societies. The language differences are nullified with the help of
translation apps (Gupta, Dogra, & George, 2018).
Smartphones enable user to tap untapped opportunities and enhance their ‘on-the-go’ travel
experience as the smartphone adds an element of flexibility. The tourist use of Smartphone apps
was significantly affected by the price-saving orientation, performance expectancy, social
influence, perceived risk, perceived trust and habit (Gupta, Dogra, & George, 2018). The impact
of smartphone on tourist experiences, choosing of smartphone apps while travelling and
intentions to adopt smartphone apps for making a travel booking (Gupta, Dogra, & George,
2018) have led to a substantial increase in the use of smartphones by tourism marketers and
travellers. However, the value proposition on the adoption of smartphones has not clearly
defined (Kim, & Law, 2015).
2.2 Smartphone and tourist experience
The usage of smartphones has brought about both positive and negative experiences to the
tourists. Tan discusses how smartphones affect individual tourist’s experience. It appears that
the usage of smartphones has brought about both positive and negative experiences. Tan
examined the relationship between travel goals and smartphone tourism destination, as well as
the experience of tourists and the overall satisfaction of the trip. Tans study considers such goals
in categories such as communication, entertainment, simplification of formalities and
information retrieval (Tan, 2017). Smartphones allow people to be closer to one another,
although they are physically located far from each other, that is, in two “places” at the same time.
It is posited that mobile technologies lead to changes in interpretations and subjective
perceptions and thereby transform tourism experience (Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012).
Concerns were also expressed about the potential negative impact of mobile interaction on real
meetings during travel. Tourists react differently to this shared physical-virtual space.
The usage of smartphones while travelling can provide a permanent state of absence to tourists.
Using smartphones at the destination can be a response to boredom and an attempt to kill time,
affecting the immersive quality of that travel experience and hence reducing the overall
satisfaction of the trip. However, to a greater extent, this study shows that tourists appreciate the
functionality of smartphones. Social presence, boosting one’s self-esteem with the use of social
networking sites like Facebook to share travel experiences with others, making phone calls to

keep in touch with others during a trip, obtaining information about transport, obtaining general
information about the destination. However, the impact of having different context is negligible
While Tan’s article focuses on the usage of smartphones on the individual’s touristic experience,
an article written Yu, Anaya, Miao, Lehto, and Wong addresses the impact of smartphones on
the family vacation experience. The effects of smartphone usage on some aspects of the family
vacation like internal family interactions, family interaction with the destination, and the family’s
recollection of experiences were studied. Yu, Anaya, Miao, Lehto, and Wong addressed these
different categories and brought forward light comprehensive patterns regarding the impact of
smartphones on family vacations, which are helpful in reinforcing the paradoxical effects
smartphones bring to the individual’s touristic experience. While smartphones can help to
facilitate “consensus-building among family members during a vacation”, it can also be seen as
an “interaction inhibitor” as family members are more taken with using their smartphones than
engaging in real-time interaction ( Yu, Anaya, Miao, Lehto, & Wong, 2018 ). Moreover, the
categories highlighted in the paper of Yu, Anaya, Miao, Lehto, and Wong offer a framework
for comparing the differences between an individual and family touristic experience, which can
help shed light on the gaps in the usage of smartphones in mediating “both behavioural and
psychological dimensions of the touristic experience” (Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012).
2.3 Smartphone and tourism
The smartphone is an emerging technology which helps tourists for tracking locations and
places. However, securing the hardware tracking system is a widespread challenge faced by
consumers while using smartphone technology. Also, the researchers identified that security and
privacy are very negative impacts of smartphones on tourists (Hardy, Hyslop, Booth, Robards,
Aryal, Gretzel, & Eccleston, 2017). Smartphone technology can determine the current and
future pattern of behaviours that allows users to organise travel opportunities. Dickinson
conducted research and identified the importance of the smartphone in the field of the tourism
industry and provided in-depth analysis of smartphone technology. According to Dickinson data
privacy is a significant concern with the smartphone due to which consumers may lose their
personal information (Dickinson, Hibbert, Filimonau, Cherrett, Davies, Norgate, Winstanley,
2017). Obtaining data or information using a smartphone is one of the practical approaches
which can help tourists for findings location quickly. GPS technology plays an essential role in

the detection of location and critical aspects of smartphones, as the data may be collected with
the help of Smartphone apps, which can perform regular tasks in the smartphones without any
interference. Moreover, mode class identification can be developed and implemented in the area
of tourism for detecting motorised and non-motorized trips (Safi, Assemi, Mesbah, & Ferreira,
2016).
Dayour, Park, & Kimbu have analysed the opinions of experts on the research topic of perceived
risks and threats towards smartphone technology, which can impact on the personal data of
tourists and evaluated that smartphone technology could effectively change the way of
communication. Dayour, Park, & Kimbu have also provided an integrated framework for
identifying risks faced by consumers while using smartphones (Dayour, Park, & Kimbu, 2019).
Smartphones and digital foot printing are a useful technology which helps organisations to
uncover the presence and movements of tourists. Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat
provided their views and an in-depth analysis of the topic and supported their arguments with
evidence as compared with previous studies, the authors provided complete information about
smartphones and identified their importance in the field of tourism (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore,
Ratti, & Blat, 2008). The smartphone is an appropriate information technology which has the
capability for improving the performance of tourism sectors. As the smartphones are now
capable of web-browsing, photography, entertainment, locator applications as seen in apps like
Google Maps, executing travel-based transactions and communicating with others with the touch
of a button. Smartphone technology and smartphone applications have a massive scope in the
travel domain (Dickinson, Hibbert, Filimonau, Cherrett, Davies, Norgate, Winstanley, 2017).
2.4 Potential data analytics
In the current digital world ample amount of online data is freely available and is easy to collect
as compared to traditional methods (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008).
Organisations are gathering large volumes of data to point out and analyse the user’s behavioural
patterns. Data analysis help organisations to harness opportunities, discover efficient ways to do
business and respond to customers need. Even though are few issues like data privacy, users are
ready to provide their information for a better experience (Dickinson, Ghali, Cherrett, Speed,
Davies, & Norgate, 2014). Digital footprints help to uncover the presence and movements of
tourists from smartphones, network data, and geo-referenced photographs — smartphone user's

leave electronic trail voluntary or involuntary, before and after visiting a destination. Tourists
and travellers generate an electronic trail when they consult digital maps or travel web sites
before travel and during their stay in the city, they leave traces on wireless networks which they
access through their smartphones (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008).
Data collected via GPS is of low quality due to various hindrances such as cold and warm effect,
urban canyon effect and insufficient signal strength. Detecting a trip using GPS assisted travel
data is a challenge, so several innovative methods are used to monitor the destinations and
attractions (Hardy, Hyslop, Booth, Robards, Aryal, Gretzel, & Eccleston, 2017). However, using
smartphones is one of the methods that improve GPS data collection. Collecting data through
smartphones is much more accurate and reliable as it can be done using the sensors already
present in the smartphones (Safi, Assemi, Mesbah, & Ferreira, 2016). The smartphone-based
GPS technology and a mobile app can point out the existing gaps in the approaches and improve
the accuracy and reliability of the results to easily track the tourist's movement (Hardy, Hyslop,
Booth, Robards, Aryal, Gretzel, & Eccleston, 2017). Smartphone Apps have actively
incorporated QR codes that contain extensive information about tourist spots visited by the user
and the user’s interactive communication (Dickinson, Ghali, Cherrett, Speed, Davies, & Norgate,
2014). Also, there are smartphone apps that run in the background, so users can perform regular
tasks on smartphones without any interference. These apps collect the data and process it in real
time which is forwarded for data cleaning which removes the inaccurate logs, dwell time, get
participant ID and finally performs a mode class identification to detect the motorized or non-
motorized trips. (Safi, Assemi, Mesbah, & Ferreira, 2016).
Digital data analysis reveals patterns of mobility and preference among different visitor groups,
but traditional methods help define the usefulness of pervasive user-generated data. Data analysis
also enable us to have customised services, advertising and the accurate timing of service
provisions, such as scheduling attractions opening times, based on demand and help in tourism
management (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008). Websites and apps data collected
from the smartphone enables the service providers to understand the evolving trends and
preferences of users. Service providers analyse data develop services so that users can have more
information, comfort, and thus enhancing their tourism experience (Dickinson, Ghali, Cherrett,
Speed, Davies, & Norgate, 2014). Digital data is a useful source of information for the tourism

sector as it can help in improving the tourist experiences, such as creating Wi-Fi hotspots close
to tourist spots, local authorities can predict tourist behaviour and can help them keep the areas
safe, widening of pavements, locating new tourist information spots among others to improve
tourist experience. (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008).
3.0 Methodology
3.1. Research design
This study adopts a quantitative approach to study the relationship between smartphones and the
tourism experience of Singaporean young adults. The quantitative approach is credible as it relies
on statistical evidence to draw the test hypothesis. Questionnaire surveys were ideal for this
study to provide data, a questionnaire survey can be re-analysed, complex information can be
easily understood, and a complete picture participants experience is obtained. For this study, a
new web-based questionnaire survey instrument was developed using Qualtrics regarding the use
of smartphones in the context of tourism. However, the questionnaire survey relies on the format
of questions included in the questionnaire and on the respondent’s power to recall information
honestly (Veal, 2017).
3.2 Quantitative Approach
3.2.1 Development of research instrument
The web-based questionnaire survey instrument was developed in Qualtrics, based and revised to
fit the context of tourism experience regarding smartphone usage, using a five-point Likert scale.
The questionnaire comprised of five main parts. The first part contained socio-demographic
characteristics of respondents, such as gender, age, educational qualification and salary. The
second part asked respondents questions about the uses of smartphones (Kim, & Law,
2015;Vallespín, Molinillo, & Muñoz-Leiva, 2017; Gupta, Dogra, & George, 2018; Dickinson,
Ghali, Cherrett, Speed, Davies, & Norgate, 2014; Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012) and how
they use it regularly. The third part focussed on smartphones and tourist experience(Tan, 2017;
Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012; Yu, Anaya, Miao, Lehto, & Wong, 2018), which discuss
the role of smartphones in the tourism industry and how it has changed the way people travel
today. It shows the increasing integration of smartphones in travelling from both tourists and
business perspective. The fourth part looked at smartphone and tourism (Hardy, Hyslop, Booth,

Robards, Aryal, Gretzel, & Eccleston, 2017; Dickinson, Hibbert, Filimonau, Cherrett, Davies,
Norgate, Winstanley, 2017; Safi, Assemi, Mesbah, & Ferreira, 2016; Dayour, Park, & Kimbu,
2019; Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008), which discusses how Singaporean young
adults use their smartphones when planning tours or trips and how often do they use smartphones
while travelling abroad. The last part of the survey contained questions about potential data
analytics (Girardin, Calabrese, Fiore, Ratti, & Blat, 2008; Dickinson, Ghali, Cherrett, Speed,
Davies, & Norgate, 2014; Hardy, Hyslop, Booth, Robards, Aryal, Gretzel, & Eccleston, 2017;
Safi, Assemi, Mesbah, & Ferreira, 2016) and covers how smartphones collect different types of
data through its users as they feed it in a while looking for information on various websites and
applications, which includes geographical locations to information about places and things.
3.2.2. Data collection and procedure
The web-based questionnaire survey instrument in Qualtrics was finalised and administered in
the English Language. The target population for the study were Singaporean young adults
between the age group of 18 to 35 years. In this study, a Singaporean young adult is a student
studying, holding student pass in Singapore or employee working in Singapore holding an S pass
or E pass, or Singaporean PR or a citizen of Singapore. Thus, for the participants to qualify for
inclusion must identify themselves as Singaporean young adults and use a smartphone for travel.
3.2.3. Data analysis
The survey was distributed across Singapore via emails, WhatsApp and other internet-based
services and After obtained significant constructive responses from the participants, the survey
was closed. Qualtrics was used to analyse, identify trends, and produce predictive models.
Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to offer a general view on the sample
characteristics and distribution. As frequencies are the most straightforward form of descriptive
analysis, it produces counts and percentages for individual variables.
4.0 Findings
The findings reveal that most of the respondents who participated in the survey were within the
age group 18 to 27. 65 % of respondents were male, and 35% were female. 55% of Respondents
were full-time students, and the rest were working class. When respondents were asked about

their preferred size of the travel party, 55 % wanted to travel in a group on 3 to 5 that was
confirmed as 65% of respondents like to travel with family members or friends.
Almost 75% of the respondents agree that the smartphone is essential for them when they travel.
When respondents were asked about using features of the smartphone during travel, 72% of
respondents agreed that they are familiar with most of the features of a smartphone. According to
74 % of the respondent’s smartphones make travellers aware of the surroundings during travel.
71 % of respondents use GPS services while travelling. However, respondents do not like to use
virtual personal assistant like “ok google”, and “Siri”. Results show that Virtual assistance is not
very popular with tourists, and only 30% of the respondents use these features.
More than 75 % of the respondents agreed that they regularly use the internet on their
smartphones while travelling, which was supported by further findings, like using social media
while travelling. 84% of the respondents are in favour of having Wi-Fi services at all the tourist
attractions, for them to connect to the internet. As many as 81% of respondents agreed that
smartphone helps them share travel experience through social media, and they need internet
access for that. An interesting finding was even though 81% of respondents like sharing
experiences on social media via a smartphone they do not like to take photographs on
smartphones as 30% of the respondents do not like take photographs on their smartphones when
they travel.
Almost 90% of the respondents agreed that smartphone enhances their tourist experience, which
is supported by findings such as 77% of participants agree to use smartphones to plan a travel
itinerary. As the use of smartphone apps while travelling as 80% of the participants agreed that
Smartphone apps improve the quality of the tourist experience. Around 80% of the participants
also agree that smartphone help tourists to cope up with unexpected situations which they might
face during the travel. 67% of the respondents use smartphones to book rides like taxi and cabs
when they travel. 61% of the respondents were also aware of the negative impact of
smartphones.
Respondents in the study made a significant revelation when it comes to data privacy and
smartphones. When questioned about the importance of data privacy, 90% of the participant’s
replied that data privacy is vital for them. 78% of the respondents did not approve of, the
companies collecting their private data via internet browser cookies or smartphone apps. Around

50% of the respondents share their private details like location data and browsing history with
companies to help them improve their service. 85% of the respondents agreed that they are aware
of smartphone apps, and internet browsers are collecting their private data for the companies and
are also aware that these companies use this data to generate personized results and generate
services specific to them. However, that does not stop respondents from giving their content to
install smartphone apps that collect their data as 89% of respondents agreed that they do it.
4.1 Conclusions
This paper investigated the relationship between the use of smart-phones and tourism experience,
with a focus on the young Singaporean adults. Private use of smart-phones has increased as it has
come to form individuals’ personality image; its use in the tourism sector has also expanded
where tourists use it to track places and locations and also created potential for data analytics
from smart-phone data. Consequently, it has created a whole new platform for interaction and
tourism marketing with experiences being both positive and negative. A quantitative research
approach using online questionnaires was used to gather data that was analyzed statistically.
Most respondents in the survey fell in the 18 to 27 age range with 35% being female and 65%
being male. The study established that most respondents (55%) preferred traveling in groups of
between three and five while 65% preferred traveling as a family or with friends. Three quarters
of the respondents said a smart-phone was essential in their travels and a similar number said the
smart-phone made them aware of their surroundings during their travels and most (71% used
GPS). 99% said the smart-phone enhanced their tourism experience with 77% using it for
planning their travel itinerary, 60% using it to book rides. 80% said the smart-phone enabled
them cope with unexpected events. Nine out of ten said data privacy was of primary concern to
them and a majority did not want tour companies collecting and using their private data. As such,
the smart-phone is an important platform in the tourism sector for young Singaporean adults for
enhancing their experience although privacy concerns are high; the findings are consistent with
existing literature (Pan & Yang, 2016) and findings of similar studies (Camilleri, 2017).

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