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The main purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media channels and determine whether the embedded social media channels enhance the overall experience of travelers using the hotel Web sites.

A true-experimental, between-group and post-test-only design was used to address the primary research questions. Two privately accessible complete versions of the Web site (one with embedded social media channels and one without them) were designed for the experiment. The uses and gratifications approach was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Data were analyzed using ANOVA.

The results of this study revealed that embedded social media channels on the hotel Web site enhanced travelers’ social gratifications of perceived social interaction. Apart from these benefits for travelers seeking social gratifications, embedded social media channels did not enhance the overall experience (content and process gratifications) of travelers using the Web site.

In the case of embedded social media on hotel Web sites, this study suggests that hotel managers measure return on engagement to examine the effectiveness of embedded social media, instead of return on investment.

The study revealed that the emergence of embedded social media channels and their integration on hotel Web sites will have significant influence on travelers who seek social gratifications.

The findings of this study offer new empirical evidence that embedded social media channels enhance only travelers’ perceived social interaction during their first visit to the hotel Web site.

The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of the Pokémon GO game that influenced travelers to use the app, and to pinpoint aspects of the mobile augmented reality (MAR) game that can memorably engage with them like a travel guide and influence individual traveler experience during and after usage. This current study specifically focused on examining the behavioral intentions to use the MAR app as a travel guide in the future.

Descriptive methods were used, with a target population for this study consisting of smartphone users who had downloaded Pokémon GO and had played the game. An exponential non-discriminative sample, snowball sampling method, was chosen by selecting a group of respondents who have played the game and using those to help identify other respondents in the target population who have played the game. A 15-item survey instrument drawing from industry insights and academic literature was created for the purpose of the study.

The number of downloads, length of usage and frequency of game play declined between the months of July and September. However, a 71 per cent majority of surveyed respondents still had the app on their smartphone at the time of the study. The Pokémon GO app offered all four realms of experiences – educational, entertainment, esthetic and escapist – and enhanced the overall user experience. This study revealed that a majority (77 per cent) of the respondents would be interested in using Pokémon GO as a travel guide. Furthermore, a majority (73 per cent) of respondents stated that they would be interested in using an MAR game as a travel guide in the future.

For all its interaction with the real world, Pokémon GO is still just an early version of an MAR app, and does not offer a fully immersive and interactive AR experience. The study used snowball sampling due to its exploratory and may not be able to guarantee the representative nature of the sample. Concerning the research method used, such methods were necessary for a review of an existing MAR app as a travel guide to further fill some gaps in literature.

This study bridged the gap between theory and practice by offering key insights specifically into customers’ intentions to use the Pokémon GO game or other customized MAR game as a travel guide in the hospitality and tourism industry. Pokémon GO and similar MAR games could potentially change the way destinations are marketed in the tourism industry. This current study pinpointed five exploitable qualities of MAR technology and how hospitality and tourism businesses can use them to tap into this new global and social phenomenon.

Pokémon GO and similar MAR games bring people together. In fact, unlike social media, where users are spending significant amounts of time just browsing without posting or interacting with others, MAR games create face-to-face interactions. MAR games enhance real-life social interaction, which might signify a social media trend back toward real world networking and meeting with friends.

Since the early 2000s, several qualitative and a few quantitative studies have been done to explore (MAR) applications as a travel guide; however, none of them have reviewed a MAR game app that can be offered as a travel guide. That makes this a pioneer study, investigating an existing MAR app that was not created with this use in mind and examining the intentions to use it as a travel guide.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, education, income) on consumer attitudes and their intentions to use radio frequency identification (RFID) in the hotel industry.

Quantitative research methodology was used in this study. The methods used for this study are both descriptive and causal modeling tests. This research study used web‐survey method for collecting and analyzing data. The measurement model was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis using the maximum likelihood method and structural equation modeling was used to estimate the parameters of the structural model.

The results indicate that there are few differences in consumer attitudes and intentions in terms of the demographic factors. It can be concluded that consumer differences can be associated with consumer attitudes that are determined by age. The results for demographic factors, gender, income, and education levels indicate no difference in the attitudes and intentions of consumers to use RFIDs.

Considering the fact that “trendy and hip” hotels are emerging in the industry, it is vital to understand the perceptions of Gen Y and Gen Z on specific RFIDs. A future research to study the influence of consumer demographics on security and privacy concerns is highly recommended in the hotel industry. The study may not have the complete list of population members who are frequent travelers in the US hotel industry.

Older consumer may consider themselves too old, less innovative, and having low cognitive capabilities to use RFIDs. Hotel organizations may provide familiar RFIDs to young consumers. The costs of RFID technologies are diminishing and hotels can offer RFIDs that enhances user benefits and experience. On the other side, hotels can use RFIDs to improve efficiency and employee performance.

This study provided significant insights by empirically investigating consumer differences and its influence on attitudes and intentions to use RFIDs. The results of this study fill the gaps in understanding consumer behavior to use RFIDs in the hotel industry. In addition, exploring consumer attitudes and intentions to use RFIDs could facilitate hotel organizations to make right investment decisions on RFIDs.