Do smart apps encourage tourists to walk and cycle? Comparing heavy versus non-heavy users of smart apps

ABSTRACT

Research on what makes people walk/cycle for tourism is significantly understudied in relation to smart app use among Asians. To bridge this gap, this work proposes and verifies an integrated research framework that includes environment and health factors, along with heavy versus non-heavy users of smart apps based on PLS-SEM and fsQCA. Public health has a positively significant impact on behavior on walking/cycling for tourism, followed by climate change mitigation, public green space, personal health, and air quality. Importantly, the heavy versus non-heavy users of smart apps on usefulness and knowledge have distinctively different solutions for tourist walking/cycling behavior.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental quality
• sustainable transport
• sustainable mobility
• smart technology
• active transport
• PLS-fsQCA

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Injae Cho, Donghyeon Kim, Minseong Kim, Sang Youn Kim, Dong Uk Kim, and Sangwoo Kim for their thoughtful advice and refining the survey instrument. The authors also would like to appreciate the editors and anonymous reviewers for their time and contributions to this study.

Disclosure statement

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