ELDERLY’S ACCEPTANCE TO ADOPT INFORMATION SYSTEM: MOBILE WEBSITES AND APPLICATIONS FOR HOTEL AND ACCOMMODATION RESERVATION

Abstract

Presently, the older people tend to be a considerably important consumers, especially in tourism and leisure industry because of their afford of purchasing goods and services. The increasing availability of Information System (IS) has affected tourism and travel industries, that is, the way tourists explore, plan, and purchase tourism products. Instead of visiting a travel agent, tourists may visit tourism websites and applications to obtain travel information, do their travel plan, and purchase travel products by themselves. Since the elders are less accustomed with the internet and experience computer anxiety and uncertainty during internet usage, so this study needs to fulfill the gap by investigating factors affecting the acceptance of websites and mobile applications for hotel and accommodation among elderly. The data were collected from 400 elders living in Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The results showed that the elders frequently reserved hotel and accommodation via mobile applications more than websites. The factors affecting the acceptance of information system for tourism among elderly were: 1) The social influence and 2) The ease of system usability. The social influence was the most influencing factor. The results also showed that the factors affecting the intention of using system were: 1) The social influence; 2) The ease of system usability and 3) The perception of system advantages. The most influencing factor is the social influence. The contribution of this study is to shed light on how the elders should be prepared for the information system or technology acceptance.