Digital divide and senior travel consumption: an empirical study from China

ABSTRACT

The digital divide in tourism consumption deserves attention. Based on the data from China Family Panel Studies in 2018, we built a Tobit model to explore the impact of the digital divide on elderly tourism consumption. It is found that the elders with low digital access and usage tend to spend lower on tourism. Further research finds that transaction barriers are an important channel for the impact of the digital divide on elderly tourism consumption. The inhibiting effect of the digital divide on senior travel consumption can be reduced when seniors receive more social support from spouses, children, and friends.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital divide
• senior tourists
• tourism consumption
• transaction cost
• social support
• Tobit model

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC) “Collaborative development of ‘virtual-entity’ clusters in tourism industry” [Grant number: 18BGL144] and “Research on the mechanism and countermeasures of digital divide affecting the balanced development of regional tourism economy” [Grant number: 22BJY146].