Knowledge Organisation in Academic Libraries (KOAL)
2016
TOURISTS ACCESS TO MOBILE INTERNET Mohamed Haneefa K*, Aswathi P**. and Unnikrishnan V.M***. *Assistant Professor, Department of Library & Information Science University of Calicut, Kerala-673 635, E-mail:
[email protected] **Research Scholar, Department of Library and Information Science University of Calicut, E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract This study investigates the use of mobile Internet among tourists of Wayanad, one of the most attracting tourist places in the state of Kerala. The population of the study consists of tourists visited in Wayanad. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the structured questionnaires were distributed in random among tourists of different spots of Wayanad. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents use various mobile Internet services for different purposes. Network problem was the main barrier in using mobile Internet by tourists in Wayanad. Keywords: Mobile Internet, Tourists, Wayanad, Mobile Tourists Guide 1. Introduction Information Communication Technology (ICT) has profound implications for economic and social development of a country. It can be perceived in every part of human life like health, education, communication and entertainment. An increase in the opportunities to access new technologies results in an increase in the free flow of information. Information accessibility is an essential part of the developed world today. With development of the Internet, an easier and faster access to information at any time and from anywhere can occur. The growing advancement of wireless technology and wireless devices have shifted the world from fixed Internet access to mobile Internet access. Mobile Internet can be defined as the use of the Internet via hand held devices such as mobile phones, smart phones, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and laptop. It is different from fixed Internet in terms of mobility and convenience. Major services facilitated by the Mobile Internet include money transfer as well as mobile payment systems, mobile health monitoring, searching information through mobile browsing, and location based services (Srinuan, Srinuan and Bohlin, 2012). In every field, mobile Internet has its own relevance. For example, in tourism industry, tourists expect access of information from anywhere and anytime. They can try to plan better, and optimise their duration of visit for quality facilities and programmes available at their respective destinations. This information is so vital that no tourist will ever wish to be restricted of these due to location, devices, etc. With the recent advances in the Internet and 141
mobile technologies, there is increasing demand for digital access to tourist information systems and for coordinating the services and integration of other processes. Mobile computing and mobile devices are used to implement various tourist services. Some of the services facilitated by mobile Internet are mobile tourist guides, digital interactive maps, and tourist e-commerce transactions. Schwinger, Grun, Proll, Retschitzegger and Schauerhuber, (2007) discussed the pinpointing tourism information onto mobile maps and proposed a light- weight approach for location based systems to improve its performance. Tourists can access mobile tourist guides through various mobile devices which can describe different short cuts from source to destination, shopping center, newest event, hotel packages, etc. Kenteris, Gavalas & Economou (2008) identified the evaluation of research and commercial applications which were used by tourists to get information using mobile devices. The study described the past and present mobile guide applications using a detailed set of evaluation criteria to extract the design principles used by application developers. The prototype presented by Bauernfeind, Dlapka, Wagner, and Tjoa (n.d.) in their paper gives a new presentation approach based on maps stored in GIS servers. They offer powerful geographic search facilities and the possibility to integrate them with mobile devices. The use of GPRS enables the user to retrieve the requested information independent from access to the Internet by computers. By determining the position via a GPS receiver, local based services can be implemented. Interactive maps on mobile GPRS devices used for different services like car navigation, trip information services, parking information services, tracking services and public Transport management. Pospischil, Umlauft & Michlmayr (2004) also investigated a study on designing LoL@, a mobile tourist guide for UMTS. Mobile Internet makes possible an innovation presentation of tourism information and fulfil user desired for information provision. A prototype of mobile multimedia tourism information system for outdoor activities and user oriented data management tool were described by Almer, Luley, Schnabel and Nischelwitzer (2006). Location based services are rapidly expanding in both number and variety. They offer a wide range of services like navigation tools to help you reach your destination (e.g., MapQuest), local search to help you find nearby events (e.g., Yelp), friend-finders and social networking (e.g., Loopt and Google Buzz), applications that allow you to “check in” at certain locations (e.g., foursquare), and applications that can link your location to other activities (e.g., Twitter and Facebook). Many users currently access location based services are through mobile phones, but other devices like laptop and desktop computers, iPads, and in-car navigation and assistance systems can also be used to access many of these services. Tjostheim, Nordlund and Vestgaarden (2008) identified the GPRS and MMS services through phones and location based services, particularly travel services. The factors that predict tourist intention of using mobile travel booking was studied by Yang, Zhong and Zhang (2013). Perceived ease of use was the significant predictor that led tourists to use of mobile travel booking.
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Personalized mobile devices can help tourists enjoy a tourist location better by giving individually customized knowledge that matches one’s personal preferences. Mobile information services can offer a new way for marketing products and location based information to tourists. In recent times, tourism has emerged as an income generation activity for the development of Kerala. In this scheme, Wayanad is an attracting destination with the number of tourists visiting increasing year after year. Thousands of domestic and international tourists arrive every day. However, the Internet connectivity in the region appears deficient. Hence there is a need to assess the use of mobile Internet to know the awareness and the level of use of mobile Internet as well as the problems faced while using the Internet by tourists. Thus the aim of this study is to identify the awareness of tourists about mobile Internet services offered in the district of Wayanad. The study also tried to access the availability of the services across different locations in the district. Finally, the study is directed to find out the problems and barriers confronted by the tourists while experiencing the services. 2. Objectives of the Study The main aim of the study was to assess the use of mobile Internet by tourists in Wayanad. The major objectives of the study were given below: 1. To assess the awareness of mobile Internet by the tourists. 2. To analyze the use of mobile Internet services by the tourists. 3. To understand the problems and barriers to use mobile Internet by the tourists. 3. Research Design The population of this study consists of tourists visited Wayanad in May, 2015. Sample was selected from major tourist spots in Wayanad, during one month in the summer. Questionnaire was the main tool used for the data collection. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the structured questionnaire were distributed in random among tourists of different spots of Wayanad. For the data collection, the investigator has visited five important tourist places and personally handed over the questionnaires to 100 tourists. Out of the 100 questionnaires 97 were received back. The feedback forum includes two sections, part A and part B. Part A consists general information and part B scrutinize the use of mobile Internet. The data collected from questionnaire were categorized and analyzed with simple percentage method. 4. Results and Discussion During the trip, tourists wish to locate places of interest to them, according to their preferences and proximity, in a quick and comfortable way with the use of mobile Internet (Roig, Pérez, Bibiloni and Palmer). So they must be aware of mobile Internet services in the field of tourism. Analysis showed that ninety four percent of respondents were aware of mobile Internet. Here, a question was asked to indicate their use of various mobile Internet services and the responses are summarized in the table 1. It is clear from the table that 143
majority of respondents (70.21%) were using 3G services. Results also indicate that a few (18.08%) tourists used Mobile2.0 while very few (1.06%) were using the Goom radio services. Table 1 Use of Mobile Internet Services Sl. No.
Services
Responses (N=94)
1
Mobile 2.0
17 (18.08%)
2
3G
66 (70.21%)
3
Goom radio
1 (1.06%)
4
Max telecom
8 (8.51%)
5
WiMAX
16 (17.02%)
Tourists have different purposes for using mobile Internet like money transfer mobile banking and mobile ticketing. Here, the tourists were asked about their purpose of use of mobile Internet for financial matters and the responses are detailed in the table 2. The analysis shows that twenty two (23.40%) of the tourists use mobile Internet for mobile banking and some (22.34%) of them use it for mobile ATM. A good number (21.28 per cent) of them use mobile Internet for mobile money transfer and mobile ticketing. Seventeen percent of tourists utilize the mobile Internet for other purposes like communication and entertainment. The overall results indicate that mobile Internet provides easy access to mobile banking and money transfer. Table 2 Purpose of Use of Mobile Internet Sl. No.
Purpose
Total
1
Mobile ATM
21(22.34%)
2
Mobile Money Transfer
20(21.28%)
3
Mobile Ticketing
20(21.28%)
4
Mobile Banking
22(23.40%)
5
Others
16(17.02%)
There are many Internet activities can be performed and accessed through mobile devices. Alshattnawi (2013) conducted a study on the building mobile tourist guide applications using 144
different development mobile platforms. Priyadharshini, Deepthi, Divya and Kumar (2007) investigated a mobile guide for mobile information access. They designed a system which facilitates the mobile users to access information about primary services without upgrading their mobile device and not subscribing to any service providers. Here, the researcher asked the respondents to indicate whether they use mobile Internet as a travel guide and found that 80 of the tourists use it as a travel guide. The result also shows that a majority (70 per cent) of tourists use mobile Internet for consulting maps, forty percent of tourists use mobile Internet for obtaining information about their destination, 25 (31.25%) of them use for accessing pictures, 17 (21.25%) use for sharing information and 2 (2.5%) respondents use for some other activities. The data is summarized in the table 3. The overall analysis shows that a greater part of tourists use mobile Internet for consulting map. Table 3 Mobile Internet Activities Sl. No.
Activities
Total (80)
1 For Map
56 (70%)
2 For picture
25(31.25)
3 For Information about Location
32 (40%)
4 Sharing Information
17 (21.25%)
5 Others
2 (2.5%)
The advantages of mobile Internet for tourists include great flexibility in their tour programme, possible improved tourist schedule, increased productivity during dead moments and keeping informed about the touristic opportunities available to them. There are various factors which promote the tourists for adopting mobile Internet like privacy, ease of use and speed. Yang, Zhong and Zhang (2013) used variables such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, mobility and cost to examine the adoption intentions of tourists. Here it can be seen from the table that majority (60.64%) of the tourists use mobile Internet because of its easiness. About 36 per cent of them use mobile Internet due to its mobility feature. Nearly twenty three per cent of tourists use the mobile Internet due to it speed and 22.34 per cent of them use mobile Internet because of the privacy it offered. Time management is an important factor to support the use of mobile Internet by tourists and about 21 per cent of participants use mobile Internet because it helps for better time managements. A very few (2.5%) of them use mobile Internet due to some other factors like flexibility and productivity. Table 4 shows the result.
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Table 4 Factors Promote the Use of Mobile Internet Sl. No.
Factors
Total (80)
1
Privacy
21(22.34%)
2
Easy to Use
57(60.64%)
3
Speed
22(23.40%)
4
Mobility
34(36.17%)
5
Time management
20(21.28%)
6
Others
2(2.13%)
A factor analytic approach to determine which mobile services are important from the tourists’ perspective was conducted by Goh, Ang, Lee and Lee (2010). Their findings show that tourists appear to favour basic services such as those providing information about transportation, accommodation and food, while advanced ones like context aware services and trip planning were found comparatively less desirable. From the study it was concluded that use of mobile Internet by tourists vary according to their purpose. Hence, the investigator made an attempt to understand the different purposes of using mobile Internet. The analysis shows that majority (90.42 %) of the tourists use mobile Internet for finding routes (direction) to destination. A good number (40.42%) of them use mobile Internet for entertainment and searching for accommodation (35.11%). Nearly 27 per cent used mobile Internet for obtaining services related to transportation, 20 per cent for ride finder and 5 (5.32%) of them use mobile Internet for transit.
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Table 5 Purpose of Use of Mobile Internet Sl. No.
Purpose
Total
1
Ride finder
19 (20.21%)
2
Direction
85 (90.42%)
3
Transportation
25 (26.59%)
4
Accommodation
33 (35.11%)
5
Entertainment
38 (40.42%)
6
Transit
5 (5.32%)
With the help of mapping application through mobile Internet, tourists can navigate to their destination easily. Mobile devices help the travellers become accustomed to having local maps at their fingertips and to downloading route information, including maps, turn-by-turn directions, and estimated trip duration, and also provides alternate routes if needed. Tourists use different types of maps for locating the destinations. Now a day, a lot of mapping services are available through Internet and Pospischil, Umlauft & Michlmayr (2004) gave an overview of the functionality of LoL@, a mobile tourist guide for the UMTS. From the result, it was identified that seventy nine respondents used various mapping services and a question was raised to know the different mapping services used by the tourists. From the table 6, it is clear that Google map (89.87%) was the most commonly used mapping service and Google earth lie in the second position with 71 (89.87%) answers. Go (10.12%), Street maps (7.59%), Bing maps (6.32%), Multi map (5.06%),World map(5.06%) and Map guest (3.79%) are also used by tourists. Table 8 detailed the use of different mapping services by participants.
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Table 6 Use of Mapping Services Sl. No.
Maps
Total
1
Google map
71(89.87%)
2
Google earth
31(39.24%)
3
Bing maps
5(6.32%)
4
Street maps
6(7.59%)
5
AB maps
6
Yahoo. Go
8 (10.12%)
7
Multi map
4(5.06%)
8
World map
4(5.06%)
9
Map guest
3(3.79%)
10
Topo guest
-
11
Map info
2(2.53%)
12
Small world
2(2.53%)
-
Edwards, Blythe, Scott and & Weihong-Guo (2006) investigated a study about tourist information delivered through mobile devices. The mobile Internet can be accessed through different small screen devices such as mobile phone, PDA, Tablet, iPod etc. So another aspect covered in this study was to know about was the types of mobile devices tourists use for accessing mobile Internet. From the table 7 it is evident that most of the respondents use mobile phone for accessing Internet followed by tablets (18.09%). Some (14.89 %%) of them access mobile Internet through laptop while a very few (6.38%) the respondents use I-pod for connecting the Internet. Table 7 Devices of Accessing Mobile Internet Sl. No. 1
Tablet
17(18.09%)
2
i-Pad
6(6.38%)
3
Laptop
14(14.89%)
4
Mobile Phones
62(65.96%)
Devices
148
Total
Mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on mobile devices such as mobile phone, Tablet or PDA. It is optimized so as to display web content most effectively for small screens on portable devices. Commonly used mobile Internet browsers by tourists are listed in the table 8. Analysis showed that Android is the most commonly used mobile Internet browser and 36.17% of tourist use the same. A few of them use Blackberry and Opera mobile; 14.89% and 13.83% respectively. A similar fraction (12.76 per cent) use Firefox and Blazer. Internet explorer (9.57 per cent) is the least used mobile Internet browser by the participants.
Table 8 Use of Mobile Internet Browser Sl. No. 1
Mobile Internet Browsers Android
34(36.17%)
2
Blackberry
14(14.89%)
3
Blazer
12(12.76%)
4
Opera Mobile
13(13.83%)
5
Firefox
12(12.76%)
6
Internet Explorer
9(9.57%)
7
Others
5(5.31%)
Total (94)
There are a lot of impeding factors which prevent smooth usage of mobile Internet. The investigator attempted to identify the various constraints faced by the tourists while using the mobile Internet. The data related to problems and barriers in using mobile Internet are shown in the table 9. It can be understood from the table (table 9) that network Problem was the main barrier in using mobile Internet with 57 (58.76%) responses. Slow Internet access (48.45%) and the problem related to battery capacity were other barriers in using mobile Internet. Furthermore, the problem of display resolution (15.46%), misguided information (13.40%), difficult in finding relevant information (12.37%) and poor mobile Internet skills (10.31%) also adversely affected effective use of mobile Internet. The overall result revealed that the respondents find network problems a major hindrance in accessing mobile Internet during their tour.
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Table 9 Problems and Barriers faced by Tourists
Sl. No
Problems/ Barriers
Total
1
Slow Internet Access
47(48.45%)
2
Battery Charge
31(31.95%)
3
Network Problems
57(58.76%)
4
Misguide information
13(13.40%)
5
Difficult in find relevant information Poor Mobile Internet Skills Problems of display resolution
6 7
12(12.37%) 10(10.31%) 15(15.46%)
5. Conclusion Using mobile devices for every walk of life is a novel phenomenon, in that mobile Internet system is the most modern one. It is very useful for travellers who are moving in and around all nations of the world. The tourism sector is one of the world’s most important economic sectors, and the increasing popularity of mobile devices presents an opportunity for developing innovative mobile tourism services for tourism-related organizations that could increase market share and enhance the perceived quality of information and services by tourists. Mobile Internet helps the tourists to locate places of interest for them according to their preferences and close them in a quick and comfortable ways. Mobile devices can offer the tourism services that are available on 24x7 basis. It is hoped that the study become useful for understanding the use of mobile Internet by the tourists of Wayanad district. The study revealed that a greater part of the tourists use mobile Internet while every respondent was aware of mobile Internet services and was using it during their travel. Nowadays mobile Internet is also used for the commercial activities like mobile ATM, mobile money transfer, mobile banking and others. The study shows that most of the tourists use mobile banking and mobile ATM during their travel. The most important search engines used by tourists are Google, Yahoo and Ask. They access the Internet on mobile using android devices. The tourists using on mobile Internet for geographical information purpose like ride finder, direction, transports, accommodation and entertainment. The major problems faced by the tourists are network problems, slow Internet access and battery charge capacity.
150
A set of suggestions and recommendations are also put forward to solve the problems faced by the tourists while using mobile Internet in order to make them most effective. The investigator suggested that tourism authorities can offer better tourism services through mobile devices and can provide Wi-Fi facility to travellers. They can increase the number of Mobile tower in order to provide better connection to tourist places so that the problem of network can be minimised. Government can also create websites containing more information about the tourist places.
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