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

Thowayeb H Hassan; Amany E Salem; Mahmoud I Saleh

doi:10.3390/ijerph19105974

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

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 14;19(10):5974. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19105974.

Authors

Thowayeb H Hassan^{1

2}, Amany E Salem^{1

2}, Mahmoud I Saleh^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Social Studies Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 400, Saudi Arabia.
² Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Helwan University, Cairo 12612, Egypt.
³ Marketing Department, Graduate School of Management, Saint Petersburg State University, 199004 Saint Petersburg, Russia.

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 detox; digital-free tourism; locus of control; millennials; tourism digitalization; tourism technology; tourist health; tourist well-being.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Holidays
Humans
Medical Tourism*
Tourism*
Travel

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Vice Presidency for Graduate Studies and Scientific Research, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia (Project No Grant 446).