TRANSPORT BEHAVIOUR, PERCEIVED EXPERIENCE AND SMART TECHNOLOGY USAGE OF TOURIST DESTINATION VISITORS

With the purpose of establishing differences in behaviour of tourist destination visitors this paper aims to identify their habits, attitudes and activities with regard to transport modalities used on a daily basis, during the trip to the destination, and while staying in the destination, highlighting the aspect of smart technology usage. The results of this study are part of a more extensive research on the behaviour of tourist destination visitors, conducted as part of the Project Cekom – Competence Center for Smart Cities, whereby the research tools and methods were built on the ETIS (European Tourism Indicators System) methodology. Approximately seven hundred visitors of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, which was taken as a case study, were included in the research. The study showed that accessibility was one of the key factors in destination choice for the respondents, and that their everyday transport behaviour patterns differ somewhat from their behaviour pattern when travelling and vacationing. Statistically significant differences were determined in the perceived experience of different groups of destination visitors’, as well as in the frequency of use of smart technologies among groups of visitors with different transport behaviour. One of the research limitations with regard to generalization of conclusions is research focus on a specific destination area, as well as the pre-defined structure of the research sample, which is in line with the requirements of the funding EU project. Differences in transportation behaviour among groups of respondents in general, and in relation to the use of smart technologies, should be verified on a larger sample, in other destination areas. Acknowledging the behavioural aspects, i.e. the differences in the transport behaviour and smart technologies usage has social and practical implications for destinations, in the context of the changed dynamics in the relationships and roles of stakeholders on the tourism market.