The Effect of Digital Information Quality on Tourist Experience

Abstract

Internet makes everything easier, including search for information. For tourist,search for information is a critical part of the trip because information found on the internet could influence tourist experience. Information makes a tourist more aware about the situation and conditions at the destination place and therefore also influences the total experience. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual framework of digital information quality in tourist experience which divided into three parts, in pre-trip (before the trip), during trip (en-route the trip) and post trip (after the trip)The data collection used was purposive of nonprobability sampling. Questionnaire survey was conducted in international departure terminal of Suvarnabhumi International Airport. From500questionnaires distributed, 450 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed by SPSS AMOS. The results of this study revealed that the causal model fits well with the standard indices (X2 = 833.4, df = 496, p = 0.05, GFI = 0.902, CFI = 0.939). It indicates that digital information quality has direct impact on tourist experience in the pre-trip stage, the stage where tourists are planning the trip and search for information, and during-trip stage, where tourists create a perception of a destination attributes. Digital information which tourists found pre-trip shaped their pre-trip image of a destination, which then influenced tourists' during-trip perception of a destination. Moreover, digital information quality has also demonstrated direct influence on during-trip destination perception. Finally, destination image and perception of destination together contributed to tourist post-trip satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the important attributes of digital information quality which influence tourists' three stages of experience(pre, during, and post). It helps destination planners to create a better digital marketing strategy to attract more tourists. Keywords: digital information quality CKNOWLEDGEMENT, satisfaction,structural equation model