Understanding Millennials’ nature-based tourism experience through their perceptions of technology use and travel constraints

ABSTRACT

This study aims to understand millennials’ nature-based tourism experience through their perceptions towards technology use and travel constraints in a nature-based tourism context by drawing upon technology escape and digital-free travel conceptualizations and leisure constraints theory. Data were collected using surveys from 276 millennials and nature-based tourism providers, and two focus groups consisting of 21 providers and 13 millennials. The findings revealed that millennials perceived laptops with WI-FI access, virtual/ augmented reality, digital cameras, and WI-FI access at campsites to be significantly less enhancing of the nature-based tourism experience compared to the providers’ perceptions. An exploratory factor analysis identified four dimensions of travel constraints among millennials, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, time, and destination attributes. The findings highlight millennials’ conflicting need to escape from day-to-day technology use while remaining connected to basic technology services. Both the theoretical contributions of these findings and practical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• travel constraints
• millennials
• technology acceptance
• nature-based tourism
• technology escape
• outdoor recreation

Declaration of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

This research has been approved by the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board -Approval numbers 00004486 & 00006007. All participants provided their informed consent prior to their participation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Arizona State Parks and Trails, Grant Number: ISA-16079.