The Search Strategies of Smartphone Users for Tourism Information

This study explores individual and collaborative search strategies used on smartphone platform. Two sample groups (university students and non-students) and three travel products/phases (pre-trip, train/flight ticket and on-site information) were designed as six situational conditions to investigate the usage of various mobile search strategies. Traditional paper-based surveys were conducted to collect data. The research results showed that the student group employed the mobile search strategies either individually or collaboratively more often than their counterpart. In addition, they were better than the non-student group at changing their ways to achieve the goals, on the basis of the characteristics of travel products.