Digital-Free Tourism Holiday as a New Approach for Tourism Well-Being: Tourists’ Attributional Approach

Thowayeb H. Hassan, Amany E. Salem and Mahmoud I. Saleh
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Thowayeb H. Hassan: Social Studies Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 400, Saudi Arabia
Amany E. Salem: Social Studies Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 400, Saudi Arabia
Mahmoud I. Saleh: Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Helwan University, Cairo 12612, Egypt

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: Digital-free tourism (DFT) has recently attracted tourism service providers’ attention for its benefits in terms of enhancing tourists’ experiences and well-being at destinations. DFT refers to tourists who are likely to voluntarily avoid digital devices and the Internet on holiday, or travel to destinations without network signals. DFT has advantages for tourists in increasing well-being, mental health, and social networking during their journeys. DFT also has a benefit for tourism marketers in that they can consider it as a new tourism approach. However, there is a lack of studies into tourists’ locus of control (LOC) while experiencing DFT holidays. LOC refers to how individuals assign the responsibility of event outcomes—whether they assign it to themselves (internal LOC) or they say it is beyond their control (external LOC). Therefore, the current study contributes to investigating tourists’ LOC impacts while experiencing DFT holidays. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with millennial tourists who have experienced DFT holidays. The study findings reveal that millennial tourists with an internal LOC (vs. external) are more likely to perceive the DFT advantages (vs. obstacles) during and after the DFT holidays. However, millennial tourists with external LOC incrementally change their attitudes and perceive the DFT holiday benefits through their self-efficacy enhancement. The findings propose managerial strategies for developing effective DFT holidays for millennial tourists regarding their LOC.

Keywords: digital-free tourism; tourism digitalization; digital detox; tourist well-being; millennials; tourist health; locus of control; tourism technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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