Abstract
Given the increasing number of smartphone users worldwide, the use of applications as marketing tools can have a significant impact on the tourism industry. More tourism businesses, especially airlines, have begun using smartphone applications as a corporate marketing strategy to cater for customer needs. This article presents the findings of a study of the adoption of such applications in the airline industry. Data on 453 airlines were accessed to investigate whether the company provided smartphone applications and the influence on this decision of different characteristics (such as location and business coverage). The results show that the type of airline has a significant impact on its adoption of smartphone applications. This paper serves as a guide for airline enterprises considering adopting this new technology to enhance future innovation and competitiveness.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the earlier version of this paper. The authors also express their gratitude to Daniel Leung and Tianzheng Wang for their kind suggestions as well as Jing Liu and Ada Guo for their participation in data collection process.
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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Liu, Y., Law, R. (2013). The Adoption of Smartphone Applications by Airlines. In: Cantoni, L., Xiang, Z. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36309-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36309-2_5
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