The effects of mobile engagement on psychological experience among millennial tourists in an urban destination

Abstract

Mobile utilisation has dictated tourists travel consumption and has psychologically altered the way tourists experience a destination. The Millennials, especially are addicted to mobile use and are perceived to contribute to poor tourist– destination encounters. Yet, this human-technology relation has managed to alter the pattern of tourists’ consumption to shape a new experiential dimension based on the technology-emotion relationship. Previous studies have acknowledged the influence of travel-related mobile engagement on the tourism experience. However, the extent of its enhancement on psychological perspective of tourists experience is still unclear. In particular, experience fulfilment is believed to lead to destination attachment and loyalty. Hence, it is critical to gain more insights into the elements that stimulate tourists’ psychological experiences. Therefore, this study aims to measure tourists’ psychological experience from mobile engagement and its impacts on destination attachment and loyalty. Kuala Lumpur City Centre was selected as the study area, as it offers extensive urban experiences. Millennial tourists were specified as the unit of analysis, as they are at the cutting-edge of digitalisation. Purposive sampling was used to select 387 respondents, and metadata tagging ‘#kualalumpur’ and ‘location checkin’ on social media platforms were established to filter the respondents. The findings revealed that Millennial appreciate the benefits of mobile engagement in facilitating and enhancing their travel experiences. Their mobile engagement mostly focused on knowledge-related activities instead of experiential-related activities. Yet, experiential-based mobile engagement was found to have the most significant influence on psychological experience. The psychological experience resulting from mobile engagement also significantly influenced the development of place attachment and destination loyalty. In sum, the mobile engagement experience is a strong antecedent to overall travel satisfaction. The results highlight the need for the city to enhance the competitiveness of its experiential offerings. Acknowledging the link between tourists’ psychological experience and mobile engagement is critical to assist destination management organisations to understand the demand of the current tourists’ market, besides helping to manage destination information infrastructure.