Fun and functional: Can a gamified travel app win over users?

Abstract

This current study considers gaming motivations’ influence on the adoption of a gamified travel application (app) among drive tourists. Given the saturated travel app market, a need to develop value added features (such as gaming) to encourage app conversion or adoption should be of interest to travel app developers. Time spent on games as well as frequency of travel app usage were included as moderating factors. All relationships proposed by the theoretical model were supported, suggesting that existing usage of a travel app has a positive relationship with motivations to use a gamified travel app. Gaming motivations also had a positive effect on intention to download a gaming app. In addition, our findings indicate that gaming motivations fully mediated the relationship between current usage and intention to download. Also, while level of engagement with games increased the likelihood of adoption of a gamified travel app, higher usage of travel apps overall did not. This suggests that while a gamified travel app may hold general appeal, it would be best suited to the niche but significant gamer market.