Development and Validation of Ecotourism Smartphone Application Scale (ESAS) and General Experience Scale (GES)

Abstract

The proliferation of mobile technology has significantly changed non-traditional tourism types such as the ecotourism sector and thus significantly impacted visitors’ experience at tourism sites. However, there is a lack of instrumentation to assess the visitors’ experience with mobile technology and the general experience of the visitors at ecotourism sites. This research aims at establishing and validating the instruments to measure the visitors’ experience with and without mobile technology. A standard psychometric scale development methodology was utilised to develop and validate the scales. Three hundred participants responded to the online advertisement and participated in this research. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS. Findings from Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed the multi-factor attributes of visitors’ experience with the smartphone app and general experience for the ecotourism site. The Ecotourism Smartphone Application (ESAS) yielded five factors: App Ease of Use, Mobile App Usability, App Utilitarian Value, App loyalty, and App Meaningful Experience; whilst General Experience Scale (GES) yielded two factors: Learning and Satisfaction. These two scales can measure the overall visitor experience at ecotourism sites that use and do not use mobile technology.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tanalachimi Ganapathy

Tanalachimi Ganapathy is a PhD candidate in Human-Computer Interaction at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Her main research interest is in the use of mobile technologies at ecotourism sites.

Mohd Kamal Othman

Mohd Kamal Othman is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of York UK, and his research interests span the fields of HCI, museum studies, tourism, digital technology and education.

Abdulrazak Saleh Yahya

Abdulrazak Saleh Yahya is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), and his research interests focus on using Artificial Intelligence in various fields.