Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/10
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Restricted Adoption of AI Itinerary Planners by Young Adults: A UTAUT Study(Bournemouth University, 2025) Alshehri, Omar; Buhalis, DimitriosThe rapid integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the tourism sector has created powerful new tools for travel planning. This study investigates the key determinants influencing the adoption of AI itinerary planners among young adults (aged 18-28), a critical demographic of digital natives. The research aim was to develop and empirically validate an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, integrating the core theory with the constructs of trust, personalisation, and perceived risk. A quantitative, cross-sectional online survey was administered, yielding a final sample of 228 valid responses, which were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that Performance Expectancy is the most powerful predictor of behavioural intention, strongly affirming that perceived utility is the primary driver of adoption. Social Influence and Trust also emerged as significant positive determinants. Crucially, the model demonstrated that Perceived Personalisation is a key antecedent, strongly and positively influencing both Performance Expectancy and Trust. In contrast, Effort Expectancy and Facilitating Conditions were found to be non-significant, suggesting these are baseline expectations rather than drivers for this technologically fluent cohort. While Perceived Risk did not directly deter adoption intention, it significantly eroded user trust. The validated model demonstrated substantial explanatory power, accounting for 76.2% of the variance in behavioural intention. The study concludes that young adults' adoption of AI planners is a pragmatic decision driven by utility, social proof, and a foundation of trust cultivated through a personalised user experience. These findings recommend that industry practitioners focus on enhancing personalisation algorithms and transparency to build trust and leverage social influence in marketing efforts to encourage adoption.34 0Item Restricted User Modelling with Personas and the Personalisation of a Museum Mobile Guide(Saudi Digital Library, 2024) Almeshari, Moneerah; Dowell, John; Nyhan, JuliannePersonalisation of museum mobile guides (MGs) has become a priority aim for enhancing visitors’ experiences of museums. Since users of an MG are typically first time users and since their usage is for a relatively short session, personalisation should use initial interaction data to associate the user with a particular persona category and thereby infer other facts about the user’s preferences and needs. Using this approach is a solution where data about individual users may be limited and where the individual configuration of a user interface may not be practical or warranted. This thesis contributes to the categorisation approach to user modelling and to the application of that approach to digital MGs. Five studies were conducted to achieve this aim involving 878 participants. In study 1, a face-to-face questionnaire survey of 105 museum visitors investigated the main facts required to identify a visitor persona and explored the preferences of different visitor personas for particular MG features. It was found that visitor persona could be reliably identified using multiple choice questions concerning the two factors of visit motivation and perceived success criteria. Characteristic preferences for certain features could also be associated with particular personas. Studies 2 and 3 were field studies involving visitor interaction experiences with MG interfaces and both questionnaire and observational data were collected. Study 2 (N=60) found significant correlations between different personas and their preferences for particular features. Study 3 (N=118) examined the experience of visitors using a personalised MG and investigated whether their preference for one of three alternative MG interfaces matched their persona. Study 4 focused on users’ preferences for the design of content of the MG. The study was conducted using an online questionnaire (N=260) where participants were given a scenario and asked to imagine visiting a museum and using an MG. Study 5 (N=335) evaluated summatively the use of motivation and perceived visit success criterion questions to identify a visitor’s persona as well as primary preferences results from the prior research. It also investigated personas preferences of other MG features including presentation form, menu and venue navigation tools. The study paradigm attempted to realistically represent the experience of visiting a museum, including navigating between exhibits, choosing which exhibits to see and viewing several exhibits. The behaviour of people in exploring the exhibit and using the MG has been explored in the first four studies at different levels and found differences among personas. These studies taken together indicate that it is possible to identify a museum visitor’s persona using simple MCQs and to provide them with an interface variant they are likely to prefer according to their persona; they show that the experiences of different visitors using different variant interfaces are equally good.7 0