Acceptance and Adoption of eTourism Technologies

The field of eTourism research encompasses a plethora of research on users’ adoption and acceptance of technologies. As a multidimensional phenomenon, an in-depth understanding of eTourism technology acceptance requires crossing the boundaries of tourism and hospitality, information and communication technologies, and marketing. Taking such a multidisciplinary approach enables researchers to integrate knowledge from the broader disciplines of psychology, sociology, and economics to construct a deep understanding of users’ behavior. However, while there have been some recent advances in broadening the horizons of research in this field, the majority of eTourism technology acceptance research relies on a few classical technology acceptance and consumer behavior theories. This chapter presents a summarized overview of the most important determinants of technology acceptance behavior and critically reviews most influential theoretical models that have been used as the foundation of the majority of existing research in this field. Subsequently, some major areas of theoretical and empirical gaps in our understanding of eTourism technology acceptance will be discussed to provide researchers with a pathway towards further expanding the boundaries of research in this field. This chapter assists emerging researchers in this field to gain an overall understanding of the progress of research so far. It also directs emerging researchers towards developing alternative research agendas to diversify the theoretical foundations of eTourism technology acceptance research and expand the boundaries of knowledge in this field beyond the status quo.