THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN USING TOURIST MOBILE APPLICATIONS AND THE SATISFACTION OF YOUNG VISITORS OF A TOURIST DESTINATION

Purpose – The development of today's tourism is almost impossible to imagine without understanding the inclusion of technology. Not long after the emergence of the Internet, tourism began to take advantage of its benefits. This paper presents the attitudes of tourists on the importance of implementation of mobile applications before and during a visit to a tourist destination. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to explore the extent to which young visitors use mobile applications during and after their trips and whether the use of mobile digital tools and services affects their satisfaction with their stay in the destination. Young visitors/students were taken as sample because of previous researches where there were respondents from more generations but young people were the most numerous. Methodology – In order to explore the importance and participation of individual mobile applications in improving satisfaction in a tourist destination, a descriptive analysis of existing technological tools that help tourism to reach recognisability among potential and current visitors was carried out. The primary research was carried out by using a structured online questionnaire. By carrying out correlation analysis, the results were obtained, which applications participate most significantly in improving satisfaction when visiting a tourist destination. Findings – The research in this paper indicated the attitudes on the importance of mobile applications in the future development of tourism and on the importance of digital technology in all segments of travel. In addition, the attitudes of the respondents regarding their thinking about the future possibilities of using technology for the benefit of tourism development were also highlighted. Contribution – The theoretical, empirical, practical, and social contribution of this research should be taken into account in the design of a new tool for the adaptable and selective introduction of new mobile applications in the function of improving satisfaction with a tourist destination.